Why is Fake News so hard to deal with?

Some people sees a post, likes something in it, and forwards the post - without bothering to check whether that something that they like is factual.  Perhaps they trust the source.  Perhaps they don’t care whether it is actually true or not.  Perhaps what they like is true, but the post contains other things that are not.  There are many reasons why things that are not true are permeating the Internet.  

But one of the most sinister is that much of the fake news come from powerful, resourceful organisations. Even political leaders, national governments. When a president, prime minister, spokesman, press secretary, chief of police, minister, …, puts out something that is not true, repeatedly, how does one tackle that?  When powerful, rich people buys up scholars to put out objective-sounding but factually wrong statements about the climate, industries, companies, the economy, events, …, how does one tackle that? 

For individual citizens, it is hopeless. News agencies, presumably, address that on behalf of the citizens, by pooling together resources, rigorous training, courageous investigations, and tireless devotion to finding the facts and reporting it.  Not all of them are trust worthy.  But over time, people find out the truth about these news agencies.  Generally, people know where they stand, who has what kind of bias, who to trust, and which is propaganda.  

But the powerful people who put out the fake news themselves know that relatively objective news agencies are a threat - to them.  So they harass them with threats, law suits, threaten their supporters, put reporters and operators in prison, shutting them down.  How a government deals with news agencies is an indicator of how fearful of the truth and authoritarian a government is.  Unfortunately, it is also a very powerful tactic in the hands of the powerful, ruthless and shameless.  

When a government cries about “fake news”, it may mean something very different from what we ordinary people think.  And when they claim to take action against “fake news”, it may actually mean the opposite.  Just like the word “democracy” - it means radically different things to different people.  

That is one of the main reason, perhaps the major reason, why fake news is so hard to tackle.