A British association called Full Fact, has created a coalition between, on the one hand, all the relevant ministries of the United Kingdom and Canada and, on the other, information giants Facebook, Twitter, Google/YouTube and Reuters, in order to fight against disinformation on the internet in English.

Today, most of the major power governments have set up a specialized service to disseminate their own propaganda. The most effective in this pursuit since WW1 being precisely the British [1].

Some British journalists perceive information as binary, either true or false. Their objective, therefore, is to track down factual errors, which they pretend to do in hours when, in libel cases, it takes the UK courts months before establishing the truth.

While, in practice, it is both possible and necessary to uncover false allegations, it is not quite so easy to determine the accuracy of the facts. The only antidote to disinformation is critical thinking, which requires time and a good general knowledge. The only thing that can be done quickly is to verify the logic behind the reported facts [2]. Otherwise, we will not be countering disinformation, but feeding off a consensus instead.

[1] “The techniques of modern military propaganda”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 18 May 2016.

[2] “Propaganda and Post-Truth”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 5 November 2019.