Could technology help democracy? Using Blockchain to eliminate Fake News.
A recent study “Digital News Report”, conducted in 20+ countries and published by Reuters in 2017 shows - among many other things- the sources of consumption of news by age. The trends show how online and social media sources are at 70% for the age group of 18-24 at 60% for the group 25-34 and at 50% for the group of 35-44 while traditional sources of news like television is only preferred by the age group of 55+.
As this age group cohorts advance and transition to consume more and more news from social media and online sources, the problem of preventing Fake News to influence individual and collective behaviour and ultimately the democratic processes will grow exponentially. The recent facts that have characterised the American Presidential race must be a reflection for everybody independently of the political affiliation.
A News, i.e.: a noteworthy information, reported online can be treated as a “digital asset” linked to a “certified source” and published on “trusted and reputable” digital broadcaster platforms. A News is also subject to evolve over time and can be edit/corrected by many “certified sources”.
In this talk we present a new technology framework built on blockchain technology (a distributed ledger) that will address the problem of defining “the certified sources”, “the tracking of the news”, “the editing and the publishing” of it on reputable and trusted means. We will discuss what is technological stack behind the framework and sketch its architecture.
We finally will conclude the talk with some “provocative” remarks to allow a lively Q/A section from the audience.
*About the author*:
Cosimo Spera CEO BeeBell, Head of Data Science SaltGrid,
Advisor at EIT Digital EIT Digital (Silicon Valley Hub), and Università
degli Studi di Siena