Interview
Fake news v fact: The battle for truth
- Social media and smartphone proliferation are projected to increase news consumption and facilitate the dissemination of propaganda and citizen monitoring by governments, while individual digital content is anticipated to serve as critical evidence for establishing the truth.
- Open source evidence is expected to gain further traction with increasing adoption by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, which are projected to continue issuing arrest warrants based on social media data.
- Investigative bodies like Bellingcat are expected to maintain efforts to uncover state operations, such as the Skripal case, by analyzing social media profiles, alongside a prediction that new state actors will emerge to leverage information aggregation for power.
- The judicial integration of open source evidence is described as being in its infancy, creating risks where judges may either uncritically accept visually compelling data without interrogating underlying sources or dismiss information entirely due to an inability to verify original sources.
- A shortage of judicial training in digital investigation methodologies is identified as a significant risk, potentially preventing judges from effectively evaluating the validity of digital evidence.
- Investigators anticipate a necessity to deconstruct misleading government statements and guard against state efforts to disseminate false information, while cautioning that lawmakers must approach this evidence carefully.
- Crowdsource investigations are expected to provide a new mechanism for victim advocacy and accountability for powerful entities.