It was sometime before the pandemic, shortly after the sequel to our first myth book was published in English. I had given a lecture in the US and was given a luxury business class ticket back home. A lady sat down next to me. We started chatting. I asked what she did. She told me she worked for a company where she flew worldwide to administer a well-known personality test to CEOs. When she asked me what I did, I admitted that I had just written a book stating that this personality test is complete nonsense…

And then came the astonishing answer, ‘Oh, I know, but it’s a great seller’.

Screenshot

I was reminded of this when I read that Mark Zuckerberg wants to emulate Musk, abandon professional fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and replace it with community notes. The argument here is also ‘freedom of speech’, which Musk uses until reports come out that the man himself does not entirely agree with (see the Laura Loomer situation).

But isn’t it more about the ‘freedom to lie’? It’s already happening on Facebook en masse, and Meta is earning a lot of money. This is happening against increasing possibilities through AI for fake photos, images, fake news, etc.

The government does not have a monopoly on ‘the truth’. Science is and will remain an organised debate. But the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ is not always correct either. It’s becoming an increasing challenge for society. And those lessons in media literacy and sufficient background knowledge? They’re becoming more critical than ever, I think.