How to protect democracies from falsehoods? By empowering the young with open-source investigation skills

This piece highlights issues posed by weaponised information in the current UK news media environment and presents a pedagogical counter-strategy to counter it. Whilst the issue is not new, the threat of disordered information has been accelerated by smartphone technology – and might be further turbocharged by artificial intelligence. It is easier than ever before to influence narratives and counter-narratives and offer politically destabilising alternative “truth” logics. These factors require a concerted response to mitigate the effect they may have on democracy. Therefore, news consumers should be encouraged to take a sceptical (but not cynical) approach to information sources and empowered to critique and verify for themselves through the acquisition of open source investigation skills. This is seen as a way of countering the impact of disordered information. Once inside the news ecosystem of a given context, this disordered information can influence narratives and the scrutiny of those counter-narratives. Furthermore, it can be a domestic and/or foreign policy tool in peacetime and conflict scenarios taking various forms from “news” to conspiracy theories, and rumours which can influence or even radicalise individuals. It can artificially stabilise, or destabilise, governments and has contributed to a rise in populism and a decline of trust in news and other liberal institutions. However, whilst the problem of weaponised information is broad and multifaceted, ways of tackling it are less clear. Fact-checking and verification initiatives by mainstream media do not often reach social media audiences and fall-foul of a “problem of truth” whereby mainstream news can be seen as “establishment” and therefore partisan. The goal of previous information warfare campaigns by foreign actors has been, at least in part, to undermine trust in liberal institutions. In such an environment, establishing authentic truth is problematic as is the regulation of online platforms within liberal and transnational contexts. Counter-measures therefore need to navigate the complexity of modern news media ecosystems, and the damage already inflicted on them by weaponised information. This piece will first outline security concerns and then advocate UK government-backing of teaching of open-source investigation skills in schools, colleges and universities. The article is shaped by the perspectives of its authors, who have looked at this as practitioner and former practitioner turned academic respectively.