Fake News Story Sets Off Nuclear Threat

Check out this headline:

Reading Fake News, Pakistani Minister Directs Nuclear Threat at Israel

I used to think the internet should be exempt from regulation of any kind; not anymore. I think we need to start labeling online information the same way we label food.

Three weeks ago, a fake news story nearly set off a nuclear exchange between Pakistan and Israel. (Illustration created using ChatGPT)

I'm not talking about censorship. We should remain free to publish and consume what we want (with a few important exceptions), but information consumers must at least know what they're getting. We've got to completely rethink how we create, package, sell, purchase and consume online information.

I don't know what this will look like or how it will be achieved. What I do know is some guy in Macedonia with a laptop should not be allowed to fabricate a potentially dangerous story, wrap it up as a credible news piece, and peddle it online as though it were fact any more than I should be allowed to concoct a cake mix made from hemlock, put it in a fancy box, and sell it at my local grocery store.

There's a fine line between my right to say and do as I please and your right to not be poisoned (or nuked) ... and it's imperative we figure this out sooner rather than later. Facebook's effort to flag fake news is a step in the right direction, but it's nowhere near enough.

"We've got to completely rethink how we create, package, sell, purchase and consume online information."

The evidence for urgency in finding solutions to these problems is all around us. Just look at the latest U.S. presidential election. Read the story linked above. Think about cybercrime and all the damage it does, and now cyber warfare.

It seems the consequences of internet weaponization have suddenly moved well beyond hurt feelings and financial hardship. The future viability of entire nations hangs in the balance; perhaps even the survival of our species is at stake. In a world with nuclear weapons, this is not hyperbole.

The very things that make the internet so wonderful also make it profoundly dangerous. Total interconnectedness is a dual-edged sword.

My biggest fear is inherent technological complexities may make it impossible to rein in the evil the internet has unleashed. How do we enact and enforce food labeling equivalents, for example, in the world of bits and bytes? We all know the story of Pandora's box.

There is a vastness and asymmetry to this new technology. It seems the number of variables and potential variables is too great to allow for reasonable fixes. It's like the multi-tentacled brain tumor that has spread too far and penetrated too deeply to allow for safe removal. It's so inextricably intertwined with healthy tissue that virtually all known treatments would prove fatal.

I realize this is an imperfect analogy because the internet is not a thing to be eradicated nor is it inherently evil ... or is it? Like Zeus's mythical gift to Pandora, will the internet, and the unfettered interconnectivity that comes with it, mark the end of humankind's current age of unparalleled peace and prosperity?

One fact that clearly emerges from all this is sowing discord is particularly destructive and particularly evil. Most of us understand this instinctively, and it's hardly a new idea. We can read explicit warnings against it in holy texts from the Torah to the Bible to the Quran.

Unfortunately, the internet enables the average person to sow discord on a scale that was literally unimaginable as recently as 25 years ago. From bullying to fraud to the cancerous spread of misinformation and "fake news," the internet amplifies our cruelest and most twisted proclivities.

Moreover, the anonymous nature of cyber activity makes mischief more alluring. Acting on a single depraved impulse is a temptation considerably more difficult to resist, despite the fact — or perhaps because — the reach and consequences of such actions are infinitely greater and more dire than ever before.

This is another twisted characteristic of our virtual interconnectedness. Internet access can bring a certain sick power to the powerless. Internet trolling, after all, is about power. It's about power, a need to control, and perhaps overcompensating for one's own inadequacies. And more and more it's about profit and greed. Unfortunately, this power is all too easily and often abused.

So what are the solutions? Do we institute an international cyber equivalent of the FDA? Must websites, by law, come with content labels? What steps can we take to curb the kinds of online abuses that come with anonymity? What does more restrained internet use really look like? How is individual power controlled without giving governing authorities too much power?

And here's another more chilling thought: Do the problems associated with living in a "post-truth" society brought about by unfettered interconnectivity become so severe that the only perceived solution is total abandonment of privacy and anonymity? Do we reach the point where instituting universal login IDs becomes the only viable solution? Moreover, would a one-world governing authority ultimately be the only means by which universal restraints and information filters could be implemented?

If you ever wondered what the proverbial "mark of the beast" might look like, here's a thought: maybe it's a login ID. ☕︎

Note: Illustration added in 2025.