Fake News is Old News
Britain’s psychological warfare campaign against the Nazis pre-empted the information wars of the 21st century.
Social media is used strategically to disseminate ‘fake news’. Online profiles are hijacked and hacked in order to agitate, stoke divisions and ‘troll’ adversaries online. These methods of waging a very contemporary style of combat are sometimes known by the more sinister epithet, ‘psychological warfare’. Yet so many aspects of this supposedly 21st century phenomenon – from its harnessing of communications technology, to its emphasis on controlling narratives of who is ‘good’ or ‘evil’ in various global struggles – has deep roots.
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