A maize meme shows why you shouldn’t trust social media

TCR5F0 GM corn cob, illustration

By James Wong Victor Habbick Visions/Science Photo Library/Alamy I FIND the enormous potential of social media to share scientific knowledge across the planet fascinating. In particular, its ability to empower people to exchange anecdotal observations, which can lead to some of the most important discoveries, is a wonderful thing. So when a viral meme claiming …

Read more

Smart reporting tool could combat fake news on encrypted chat apps

By Chris Stokel-Walker WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption to secure messages Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Fears about the spread of disinformation on encrypted chat apps could be addressed by a system that can expose fake news without infringing on people’s privacy, its creators claim. WhatsApp and other end-to-end encrypted messaging apps have struggled to …

Read more