Fake News

A pithy, vibrant and accessible explainer to the past, present and future of fake news, from Ancient Greece to Donald Trump and beyond.

Anyone can go online, write something about what’s going on the world, and share it with potentially millions of people. We are living in an era of radically democratized information. And it’s a threat to democracy itself. Social media has made it easier than ever to spread falsehoods, amplified by its echo chambers and algorithms, and latched onto by politicians looking for convenient narratives.

But fake news has a surprisingly long history. This book traces its evolution through rumor, conspiracy and misinformation, Ancient Greece to Donald Trump and beyond. It explores the origins of confirmation bias, some of the earliest instances of mass media manipulation, the deployment of fake news during war and the significance of the internet age, ultimately asking the question: how do we make sense of this post-truth world?

Chris Stokel-Walker is a writer, lecturer and journalist covering tech, AI and digital culture. He writes regularly for The Times and Sunday Times, The Economist and the BBC among others, and is the author of several books, including The History of the Internet (Michael O’Mara, 2023).