Science & technology | Social media and fake news

On Twitter, falsehood spreads faster than truth

A lie is halfway round the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes

ACROSS the French countryside, in the summer of 1789, rumours swirled about vengeful aristocrats bent on the destruction of peasants’ property. It was not true. The Great Fear, as it is now known, tipped France into revolution with a flurry of fact-free gossip and rumour.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Falsehood flies”

The threat to world trade

From the March 10th 2018 edition

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