Unmasking the Truth: How Blockchain Technology Can Fight Disinformation

Blockchain is a digital information database that may be copied over numerous sites. Its other name is Distributed Ledger Technology.

What is BlockChain?

In a more thorough definition provided by Harvard Business Review, Blockchain is described as "a decentralized, immutable ledger to record data in a manner that's continuously verified and re-verified by every party that uses them, making it virtually impossible to alter the information after it has been created." Blockchain is of three types- private blockchain, consortium blockchain, and public blockchain. Additionally, Deloitte lists the five guiding principles of Blockchain.

• Distributed --As records are distributed across a blockchain network, it is possible to verify the data.
• Consensus-based -- The same goes for shared data verification. Participants must reach a consensus (often, a majority through some blockchain networks have different rules).
• Digitized, The majority of information can be expressed digitally, allowing Blockchain to work with various sources.
• Chronological -- The Blockchain has a permanent timestamp that refers to the previous data block. This links the blocks together and forms a chronological, traceable path.
• Sealed -- The Blockchain is cryptographically sealed. This means that the blocks of the chain can't be altered or copied and therefore are digitally authentic.

Blockchain is a popular source of secure records to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. It has the potential to transform industries that rely on transparency and trust. In this age of fake news, where journalists can only dream of having unalterable, re-verified content, smart media companies are jumping at the opportunity to use blockchain technology.

What's Fake News?

Fake news is information that has no facts behind it but is factually correct and used by millions via television, websites, radio, or social media.

False stories and hoaxes can damage the reputation of anyone or any industry, including finance, stock, politics, sport, or health.

For instance, BuzzFeed News identified "Obama had signed an executive order while outlawing pledge of allegiance at schools statewide" as the fakest news that went viral in 2016.

This content was created to discredit Obama's position in the 2016 U.S. election.

False stories affect politics and can impact other areas such as health, vacation, business, and even your personal life.

Fake news can be difficult to identify, as there are many types of content available, including:

• Parody - Fake stories posted to the websites for entertainment purposes only. They have no potential to deceive people.
• False Connection - News content that isn't relevant to the headlines, visuals, or captions.
• False context - When the context is not right for the content.
• Imposter content - When actual sources are copied with manipulated or fake resources.
• Fabricated content - News is created to make money or gain publicity.

These are Real-Life Examples:

• Manipulation is a major concern in fake news. Fake news can fool the public, particularly during political events.
• More than 1000 political reports from the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Elections were deemed false.

Anies Baswedan, the opposition candidate, is the subject of this fake news, which promotes untrue information about her. It is alleged that a Muslim Revolution would occur if he lost the election.

• Nation and international ties may suffer as a result of fake news. According to Qatar's official news agency, its Twitter account was hacked in 2017. To criticize aspects of the Arab Gulf and U.S. foreign policy towards Iran, hackers published false comments in 2017.
• Neighboring nations like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties with Qatar due to the bogus remarks.
• Fake scandals can often appear more convincing than the truth, leading to harassment, racism, and reputational damage. Buzzfeed reported that a U.S. jewelry shop had replaced real diamonds with fakes. This story causes the stock to plummet by 3.7%, damaging the brand's reputation.

Blockchain technology can potentially transform how information is created and disseminated. It also plays a major role in tackling disinformation in the long term. Let's look at how blockchain technology can combat fake news.

Blockchain is Being Used to Combat Fake News

There are numerous well-known examples of blockchain technology, even though it is still very new in the media. One illustration is The New York Times. The News Provenance Project was announced by The New York Times in 2019. To "disarm disinformation and empower readers to make more informed, confident judgments about the news they read online" was the audacious goal of this lofty objective. The first obstacle for The Times was photojournalism. The Times examined photo metadata using blockchain technology.

The New York Times recalled in 2020 that they wanted to determine if visible context information, such as the name of the photographer and the location in which the photo was taken, could aid readers in judging the authenticity of news photos on their social media feeds. After testing the prototype blockchain, The Times Research and Development team concluded that it enabled them to develop educated judgments regarding social media images.

A content blockchain distributor named Eluv.io and MGM Studios collaborated to develop a direct-to-consumer distribution platform. This eliminates the need for additional files to be created in storage or distribution networks.

In 2020, the Italian news organization ANSAcheck was published. It enables readers to check the credibility of articles posted on their site. When covering the 2020 U.S. elections, The Associated Press hired the blockchain company Everpedia to confirm information. Other well-known media firms that have used blockchain technology include the Chinese internet search engine Baidu and the French telecom company Orange.

How a Blockchain-Based News Platform Detects Fake News?

Why is blockchain secure?, Blockchain can give legitimate publications crucial additional credibility while still being unable to stop the spread of fake news. According to IBM, blockchain-based news and media projects can increase trust by enabling users to validate and follow online content. These initiatives might increase people's mistrust of online media in general.

Using IBM's free Hyper-Ledger fabric, Block Expert developed Safe. press in 2019. Media organizations, news organizations, and independent journalists can publish content with Safe. press stamps thanks to open network blockchain technology. A digital mark or approval directly connected to a corresponding blockchain key is another name for them.

Harvard Business Review lists several other uses for Blockchain in journalism.

• Verifying provenance -- Because Blockchain can identify where the content was created and how it has been distributed and consumed, it can be used for everything, from photo consent to copyright.
• Identity & reputation -- Due to the low confidence levels in traditional media outlets (particularly in America), blockchain technology can confirm an author's reliability as a source.
• Incentives for quality content -The capacity of Blockchain to reward quality material over sensationalism may be its biggest advantage, claims HBR. "If properly developed, a Blockchain system can cut through the congested information environment of today and encourage people to produce and exchange content pertinent to the needs of the community.."

Read More:- Blockchain's Development: Transactions, Contracts, and Applications

How can Blockchain Help Solve Fake News?

• Blockchain holds Great Potential

Blockchain systems make use of a decentralized, immutable ledger that records information. This makes it almost impossible to alter the information once it has been created. Blockchain is used to transfer cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Blockchain's decentralized validation and a clear chain of custody make it a powerful tool for tracking financial resources as well as the content.

It is difficult to fight deep fakes and other forms of disinformation because there are no consistent standards or best practices today for identifying, tracking, tracking, and responding to manipulated media across digital platforms. By providing greater transparency into the lifecycle of content, blockchain could offer a mechanism to restore trust in our digital ecosystem. There are three main ways that blockchain-based solutions can address these challenges.

• Verifying the Provenance

Blockchain can be used in two ways to combat disinformation. The first is tracking and verifying sources. Publishing houses can create a blockchain registry that includes all images published. This allows anyone to verify information like captions, locations, and consent. The New York Times, for example, is looking into this method through the News Provenance Project. This uses blockchain to track metadata like sources and edits for news photographs, giving readers greater context and transparency about when and how it was created.

Similarly, photo and video authentication company Truepic notarizes content on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains to establish a chain of custody from capture to storage. Although different applications may require different types and types of metadata, the blockchain provides a way to verify the origin of the content and to determine how it was altered on its digital journey to consumers.

Researchers and technologists can also use blockchain to track access to their algorithms and verify that individuals in training images have given their consent to the images being used. This is especially important for open-source projects, where the tools are more widely accessible and thus have a higher risk of misuse.

• Online Identity and Reputation

The reputation of content was traditionally attributed to the publisher. If you see an article in the New York Times or Harvard Business Review, you are more likely to believe it is true than if it's on a website that you have never seen. Relying on institutional reputation alone has its limitations. Trust in mainstream American media is lower than ever, with a recent poll finding that 69% of U.S. adults say their trust in the news media has decreased in the past decade. Even worse, click-based advertising revenue is driving digital media. This means that even trusted publications are incentivized more to focus on clarity than engagement. When readers are largely getting their news from social media headlines, it can seriously impede their ability to distinguish credible journalistic outlets from interest-driven propaganda machines.

Blockchain can help with this. Blockchain-based systems can verify the identity and track the reputation of content creators, eliminating the need to trust a central institution.

For example, one recent paper outlined a proposal for a system in which content creators and journalists could cultivate a reputation score outside of the specific outlets for which they write, adopting a decentralized approach to the verification of sources, editing history, and other elements of their digital content. The blockchain can also be used to track content distribution, providing both publishers and consumers greater insight into the origins of disinformation and its movement throughout the digital ecosystem.

As with any reputation tracking system, there are important questions that must be answered about who sets the standards, who contributes ratings, and who handles disputes (as also the mechanisms for doing this). To meet local and international regulations, any system that tracks and verifies personal information must also incorporate security and privacy best practices. The decentralized nature and trustworthiness of a blockchain solution may help address some of these concerns.

• Incentives for High-Quality Content

One of the biggest challenges in promoting accurate information in today's media environment is that distributors and creators are incentivized strongly to drive clicks at any cost. Clicks often come from sensationalized material. Perhaps you've heard of the Macedonian teenagers who pocketed tens of thousands of dollars from pay-per-click ads on disinformation articles shared on right-wing Facebook groups in 2016. Although ad networks such as Google promise to do more to combat misinformation and disinformation they still "grade their own homework" and are hardly incentivized not to stop the cash flowing.

Smart contracts, which are built on blockchain, can be used to automate payments for content that has been verified by predefined quality standards. For example, blockchain startup Civil launched in 2017 to incentivize accuracy in journalism by financially compensating users with cryptocurrency for publishing accurate information, and charging fees if they failed to meet community standards. Newer and Pressland, are two of the most recent startups to emerge in recent years, both of which aim to support independent and citizen journalists by eliminating barriers to distribution and using blockchain to verify the accuracy and integrity of news content.

These systems are only as reliable as the community that sets its standards. If designed correctly, a blockchain system could break through the crowded information environment and encourage people to share only content that is compatible with their community's needs.

• It's not a Magic Bullet

Blockchain has the potential to improve transparency and accuracy, but it is not inherently trustworthy. At its core, blockchain is a recording mechanism. These communities will decide how content is added to the ledger and how it will be verified. What incentives will they use to maintain and build that trust? We'll go back to square one if users don't trust the majority of contributors verifying and recording the information. Technology will never be able to solve all the problems of trust and remove the human motivations for profit or political gain that are the driving forces behind disinformation.

Even if most users are good-intentioned, it is difficult to assume that everyone will be able to read the vast amount of content being produced each day. How many of the source links included in this article so far have you opened, let alone stopped to read in their entirety? It is important to make blockchain-based tools accessible and simple to use. (Imagine a system that reviews restaurant health or Yelp reviews.) But even then, we only have so much we can expect from most users.

This is just one of many tactical issues that remain to be solved when it comes time to implement a blockchain-based media verification system. A blockchain platform can be slow and store very little information. They also have a lot of privacy and freedom-of-expression concerns. These challenges make it crucial to invest in not only technological solutions but also complementary policies and education initiatives that aim to reduce the dissemination, creation, and monetization of disinformation.

• It will take more than Technology to Combat Disinformation

We've seen many important policy initiatives at the national, state, and local levels. In 2019, the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, proposing the use of blockchain to verify sources, watermarks, content creator identity, and other relevant information. The EU proposed regulations to govern how AI can be used by firms earlier in the year. Several states have already passed laws to regulate deep-fakes, mostly for elections or deep-fake pornography, although none have been tested with case law. Any policy-driven effort must balance regulation and privacy. Recent internet blockages and protests over censorship show how authoritarian regimes can use policies that are ostensible to stop disinformation to silence whistleblowers or opposition. These concerns, along with the rapid technological advancements, will mean that practical policy solutions will need to be focused on mitigating harm and regulating malicious behavior.

At the same time, as more and more information is distributed through private social networks and channels rather than government-controlled entities, the private sector will increasingly find itself in the role of information arbiter and regulator. While many major social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter have established policies regarding manipulated media, they have not been consistent in creating and enforcing policies about disinformation more generally. They often cite the importance of freedom of speech. While the discussion around content moderation has been mainly focused on social media and internet companies, deep fakes and disinformation are a threat to all industries. Therefore, every organization must adopt policies to protect its customers and stakeholders from disinformation.

Effectively implementing technologies and policies to combat these threats requires that you understand the threat. This is not a problem that IT can solve. Individuals, companies, and governments at all levels must invest in media literacy programs that educate them and their teams about digital manipulation technologies and how to prepare.

A functioning economy and democratic society are built on trusting the information we hear, see, and read. There are many things leaders can do to ensure that this trust does not slip away, even though there are no easy solutions.

Leaders must first educate their employees and teams about the risks and opportunities presented by new technologies. They can then invest in technology solutions, including blockchain-based options as well as traditional options, to reduce the risk of disinformation and deepfakes targeting their brand, employees, and company. They can also ensure that they only partner with technology companies and distributors who take a responsible, proactive approach to meet privacy, consent, and safety standards. And finally, they can consider joining consortia such as our organization, DeepTrust Alliance, to collaborate with stakeholders united around building policy and technology solutions to these problems.

Although blockchain has the potential for making a significant impact in fighting misinformation, it cannot solve all problems. The leaders of today can create a future that all can trust by combining education, technology, and policy.

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Conclusion

These are just a few organizations formed to fight fake news." A global partnership advancing the battle against digital disinformation and deep fakes," according to the Deep Trust Alliance. Successfully integrating blockchain-based authentication mechanisms in journalism is more likely. Blockchain is a promising beginning, even though it is difficult to forecast how far it will go in the fight against misinformation.