Using Blockchain to Rein in the New Post-Truth World and Check the Spread of Fake News

In recent years, “fake news” has become a global issue that raises unprecedented challenges for human society and democracy. This problem has arisen due to the emergence of various concomitant phenomena such as 1) the digitization of human life and the ease of disseminating news through social networking applications (such as Facebook and WhatsApp); 2) the availability of “big data” that allows customization of news feeds and the creation of polarized so-called “filter-bubbles”; and 3) the rapid progress made by generative machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms in creating realistic-looking yet fake digital content (such as text, images, and videos). There is a crucial need to combat the rampant rise of fake news and disinformation. In this article, we propose a high-level overview of a blockchain-based framework for fake news prevention and highlight the various design issues and consideration of such a blockchain-based framework for tackling fake news.