The information landscape has changed a great deal over the past five years. Back in the 1990s, information exchange was mostly between academics and IT people. The majority of the information was accurate and typically scientific or technical in nature. The communication was polite and debates were just that, debates. It was an inclusive community, though in some cases you were required to stick to the topic at hand. Then came the social media platforms.
– With sources of information changing from technical to social, the reason for doing things changed to what we have now being mostly click bait articles to get views, likes and counts. What was inclusive and cordial has become divisive and just plain nasty. This has spawned a whole new industry, one unnecessary in the past — the fact checker. These are organisations or individuals paid to provide “fact checks” on…
