News commentary

You Are Not Supposed to Believe in Anything

Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum · Anne Applebaum · last updated

If you imagine propaganda as something deadly dull, a Soviet television program extolling the harvest, or a grey newspaper front page with a picture of the Leader, then your imagination is out of date. Modern authoritarian propaganda can be entertaining, provocative and contradictory, designed to confuse and distract rather than convince and persuade. …

Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity

State of Play

In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug. 

Fact-checking and its detractors


More informationabout Information integrity