Assume they are fake

In the past, it often made sense to believe something until it was debunked; in the future, for certain information or claims, it will start making sense to assume they are fake. Unless they are verified.”

If this sounds like a suspicious and bureaucratic world—far from John Perry Barlow’s famous vision of a digital world in which ideas could travel without “privilege or prejudice” — it’s important to remember the alternative: a societal fracturing into a million epistemic communities, all at war with one another over the nature of truth.

The Imperfect Truth About Finding Facts In A World Of Fakes, by Zeynep Tufekci, Wired, 18 February 2019