There's a big market out there for fact-checkers and folks who generally sniff out "disinformation" and fake news. The problem for most of these ventures is that they're tied to state security outfits. Google "the Integrity Initiative" for example. Long on initiative, woefully short on integrity, and wholly a construct of the UK security apparatus.
That's why I did a double-take when I first read about a "private" fact-checker called Astroscreen in the Globe and Mail. By "private" I mean this is an entity without formal links to any state security agencies. In fact, they're going the venture capital route, and barring any debilitating embarrassments going forward, could be moving towards an IPO somewhere down the line.
If such a venture could establish credibility as being truly non-partisan, it could find some serious traction going forward. Fake news is enjoying a bull market, after all.
In an email exchange with the writer, she seemed oblivious, perhaps naively, to the fact that key personnel in this start-up came out of NATO sponsored fact-checking operations. That could be a liability.
Then again, if Globe writers are oblivious, in all likelihood the Globe-reading public is too.
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