The real news
Last week's statements by the US Director of National Intelligence have established a cross party consensus on the facts surrounding Russia's campaign against Hillary Clinton. It's clear now that we are confronted by a systematic campaign conducted by cynical politicians against democratic institutions, not just in the US, but in France, Germany, the UK and in many other countries. This is a global issue now and I think we have reached a critical point in the intersection between private business and government interests in the internet.
Anti democratic, authoritarian forces have subverted our freedom of speech to spread their extremist views. But more importantly, they are persuading an ever growing segment of the population to become unwilling or unable to see through the 'fake news' and propaganda to form rational and independent views about the truth.
Witness the misguided individual who believed Michael Flynn's report that Hillary Clinton was overseeing a network of child sexual exploitation centres and undertook to investigate and solve the crime by himself.
Consequently we now need to establish transparent and verifiable mechanisms to validate the news we see, hear and read. The Indonesian Government have just announced some preliminary steps to try and control the dissemination and funding of fake news by addressing the funding models behind online advertising*. I doubt these measures will be effective on their own, but they are a step in the right direction and we should figure out how to continue to innovate in the cause of truth.
Get ready for a difficult fight.
*https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/01/09/govt-might-ban-adsense-to-cease-spread-of-false-news.html