Extra computationem nulla salus? Considerations on democracy, fake news and blockchain

The possibility for individuals to interact without geographical constraints was hailed at the beginning of the 1990s as the start of an unstoppable process of democratisa- tion. However, the increased complexity of the digital society and the scarcity of IT skills are leading to the progressive inability of social actors to control and critically select their cognitive sources, to the point of paralysing their ability to analyse them. Among the main focal points is the spread of fake news, which, mainly as a result of phenomena such as disintermediation and tools such as algorithms, filter bubbles and echo chambers, are able to pollute information. However, the very technologies behind the problem can also pro- vide solutions. An interesting proposal to try to curb the problem of the massive spread of fake news is the use of blockchain technology to certify the origin of news. However, it is one thing to claim that blockchain represents a technology that can offer advantages, it is quite another to go so far as to contend that the use of solutions that leverage blockchain are capable of solving the problem at its root.