The Right to Truth

An interesting take: governments should ensure "that news outlets, digital platforms, and political leaders provide the best available knowledge" and enshrine a new to not "be lied to by the powerful" in a world optimised for enragement: "one study showing that each additional negative word in a headline increased the click-through rate by 2.3%".

Of course, the West's "liberal tradition has prioritized freedom of expression over the right to truth", for good reason, assuming "free and fair competition in the “marketplace of ideas” will ensure that truth triumphs over lies. But we now know that this is wrong. Something similar to Gresham’s Law, which says that bad money drives good money out of circulation, can be applied to information".

The article points out that many institutions have developed techniques to "seek the best available truths": there are already laws (eg against deceptive accounting, for truthful public statements and consumer information), forensic tools such as DNA analysis, and the scientific method in its entirety. How to "build on these foundations to ensure that every powerful institution provides the best available knowledge"?

• "a new right to truth... Knowingly spreading lies should have consequences... including bans from holding public office or working in media"
• strenthening "nonprofit news outlets and public-service broadcasting", maintaining & reinforcing their "insulation from political and market pressures"
• "regulation could force powerful information providers to become purveyors of truth"
• "independent electoral commissions need powers to fact-check and correct false claims and block the most damaging misinformation or deepfakes in the run-up to election"
• education
• supporting the development of tools"combining artificial and collective intelligence to spot and assess misinformation" like Factiverse, Fullfact, Myth Detector & Faktisk Verifiserbar

This right to truth should be enforced by courts, not by governments or “Ministries of Truth.”