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On September the 17th 1903, The
Daily Telegram shared a sad story

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with its readers in Clarksburg,
West Virginia.

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A dispute over a pet dog between
two immigrant miners

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had led to a tragedy.

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This programme contains some strong
language.

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GUNSHOT

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It was one of the miners
who took the bullet,

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a man called Mejk Swenekafew.

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The next day, a rival publication,
The Clarksburg Daily News,

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also printed this heart-rending
story of the dog and the shot Slav

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but, in fact, they'd been caught
in a brilliant trap laid

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by their competitor.

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The Clarksburg Telegram had long
suspected The Clarksburg Daily News

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of stealing their stories,
so they'd simply made this one up

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and put it in as bait.

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Just read the victim's name
backwards, "we fake news".

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The ruse worked brilliantly.

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So, none of it happened,
and no animals were harmed

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in the faking of this story.

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But what it does show us
is that fake news was a problem

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long before our own uncertain
and confused times.

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They are the fake,
fake, disgusting news.

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In this programme,
I want to see if we can learn

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any lessons about today's fake news
crisis from earlier eras,

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when new media and new technology
led to new levels of lying.

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It was vastly sensationalised
and overblown and it

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had a sometimes malign influence.

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I'm heading to the nation
that pioneered mass-market news

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in the 19th century,
and also the 21st-century's

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information wars.

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There's just so much evil!
I'm not trying to...

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If you look up my name,
it's disgusting what appears.

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And people get hurt
from these things.

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I'm looking to history to figure out
what motivates fake news.

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I am destroying America
one fake news article at a time.

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From propaganda and paranoia...

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It's easy to dress up fake news
to make it look as real as possible.

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..to profit and politics.

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President Trump is a total
and complete dipshit.

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One thing I can promise you,
all the news coming

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up in this programme will be fake,
and that's the truth.

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Back in August 1835,
New Yorkers were thrilled

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by a series of newspaper articles

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headlined
"great astronomical discoveries".

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The reports described
how a scientist had built

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the world's largest telescope
and trained it on the moon.

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The surface of the moon was clearly
made of basaltic rock,

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but profusely covered
with a flower of deepest red,

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and there are herds
of miniature bison.

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Those quadrupeds were sometimes
hunted by flying man-bats

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and, naturally, the moon
was also home to unicorns.

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At this point, dear viewer,
you may have rumbled

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that this was fake news.

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It's very easy, looking back
from the 21st century,

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to feel smug about how much smarter
we are than our ancestors,

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but remember, this was an age
of constant scientific invention

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and new discoveries,
and it was years before man

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would set foot on the moon.

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That is, if you believe that NASA
mission DID go to the moon.

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The story was serialised over six
days, with new revelations on each,

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including some salacious details
about lunar lovemaking.

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Crowds thronged here,
to the offices of the newspaper

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that broke the story, eager for each
fresh new day's instalment.

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One eyewitness commented on the
"almost universal impression

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"and expression of the multitude,

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"that of confident wonder
and insatiable credence."

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They were fooled!

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Duping large numbers of people
all at the same time,

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like this, had only
just become possible.

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1830s New York was the birthplace
of modern mass-market news media,

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and the moon story ran
in the world's first example

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of what we'd call a tabloid.

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A paper with a very
appropriate name.

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I know, it's unthinkable
that any publication called The Sun

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wouldn't be scrupulously
accurate in its reporting.

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The New York Sun was
a product of new technology,

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the steam-powered printing press,
and because the paper was cheaply

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mass-produced, it was priced at a
sixth of the cost of most rivals,

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just one cent,
and, in another innovation,

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it was sold on the city streets.

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The Sun offers a new kind of news
for a new readership,

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working-class people, urban people
who didn't care about politics.

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These are people who were not used
to having a newspaper central

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to their lives. And The Sun gave
them news in a small, cheap format

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that they could just
pick up and buy.

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And did The Sun mind
what they printed was not

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necessarily true?

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Well, they didn't and neither
did their readers. Yup.

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The Sun drew them in
as a kind of a game -

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"Read this story,
decide for yourselves,

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"it doesn't really matter."

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What was more important was people
in the taverns and in the streets

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were discussing it, "Did you see
that? Do you believe it or not?"

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and then they would
have debates and fights,

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and that was really
what it was all about.

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The Sun claimed to have obtained
its facts about life on the moon

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from an obscure scientific journal.
But after a week of "lunacy",

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the New York Herald gleefully
printed a report of its own.

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The Sun's source didn't exist.

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They'd made the whole thing up.

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The Sun, said its rival newspaper,

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"is impudent, unprincipled,
mercenary and low-bred", and worst
of all,

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"it tells untruths for money."

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Can you believe it?

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But The Sun was laughing
all the way to the bank.

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With the moon story, it achieved
the highest circulation figures

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on Earth, and spin-off pamphlets
and engravings

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were hugely profitable, too.

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Not bad for a paper
that was less than two years old.

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It was the first great example
of one of the enduring motives

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for faking news - lies sell.

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The public doesn't just
want to be informed,

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it also wants to be entertained.

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It's also cheaper to make things up,

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rather than find things out,

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which the proprietors of America's

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new popular press loved.

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And they soon discovered fake news

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could help in the pursuit of...

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BELL RINGS
..grander ambitions.

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In the 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer

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was the world's most
powerful media mogul.

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This contemporary cartoon
shows the kind of news

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with which he made his name.

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Later in life, to atone
for this sensationalism,

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he used some of the fortune
it had made him to fund

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the Pulitzer Prize for
better-quality journalism.

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Aspiring to similar wealth
and influence was a younger,

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devilish rival,
William Randolph Hearst.

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His name lives on to this day,
in a publishing empire

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and in New York's Hearst Tower,
which his fortune paid for.

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William Hearst imitated
Joseph Pulitzer's successful formula

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of crime and celebrity, popular,
attention-grabbing stories

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under lurid headlines,
a sort of 19th-century click bait,

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but he also felt there
might be a market for stories

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of adventure and patriotism.

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What could really boost circulation,
he decided, was a good war.

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During the 1890s, Cuban rebels
were fighting for independence

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from their colonial rulers,
the Spanish Empire.

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Hearst's New York Journal
called for a war on Spain,

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and to drum up support
he sent staff to Cuba.

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Among them, one of America's
leading illustrators,

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Frederic Remington.

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The artist spent much
of his time in Havana,

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drinking cocktails in his hotel.

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He telegraphed Hearst, saying,
"Everything is quiet,

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"there's no trouble here,
there will be no war.

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"I wish to return. Remington."

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Hearst is reported to have wired
back, "Please remain.

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"You furnish the pictures
and I'll furnish the war."

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Although there's no proof
that this oft-repeated exchange

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actually occurred, Remington did
produce a highly provocative image

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of the sort his proprietor demanded.

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On February the 12th 1897,
Hearst's paper ran a story

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about Spanish officials boarding
an American steamship and seizing

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a woman they suspected of spying
for the Cuban rebels.

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She was then strip-searched.

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Pulitzer and Hearst
were in a race to the bottom,

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and in this feature,
page two in the Journal,

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Hearst had won.

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This is titillation
masquerading as outrage

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and, of course, the readers loved
it and there were serious questions

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asked in Congress.
But what had actually happened

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was nothing like Remington's
picture.

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The woman hadn't been searched
on deck by a gang of rough men,

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but in a private cabin
by one respectable older woman.

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Hearst himself had changed
the crucial details of the report,

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prompting the journalist
who filed it

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to vow never to work
for the proprietor again.

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Even the reporter thought
that he had gone too far.

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But Hearst didn't care? Hearst
didn't care, Hearst never cared,

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and Hearst loved stories
about ladies in danger,

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about lustful and horrifying
foreigners of all kinds,

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and he sent his reporters there
and kind of directed them

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what kind of stories
they were supposed to get.

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This paddle steamer isn't in Cuba,
by the way, it's on the Thames.

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Less Havana, more Kingston.

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Typical BBC - fake cruise.

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Another Cuban story,
also set at sea,

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was used by both Hearst and Pulitzer
to help tip America into war.

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EXPLOSION

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On February the 15th 1898,

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an explosion ripped apart an
American warship called the Maine,

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which had been harboured
near Havana,

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causing the loss of 260 lives.

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No evidence has ever been found
that the Spanish were responsible,

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but in the papers,
the reality that it was probably

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an accident got short shrift.

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In the Journal,
there's no room for doubt.

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"The destruction of the warship
Maine was the work of an enemy."

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But there's a fantastic bit
of humbug in the small print.

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This is very tiny.

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It says, "The captain of the ship
and the consul general both urge

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"that public opinion be suspended

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"until they've completed
their investigation."

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Well, there's no chance
of that happening,

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and everything here says "they did
it" and it's incredibly successful.

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It's the first time the paper
sold more than a million copies.

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MUSIC: The Stars And Stripes Forever

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Nine weeks later,
Pulitzer and Hearst got the war

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they'd been clamouring for,

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and America defeated the Spanish
Empire quickly and decisively.

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The patriotic hysteria
whipped up by the press

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had massive consequences.

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1898 was the start
of the USA's ascendancy

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00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,200
into becoming a global superpower,

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00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:45,320
yet the war that began all this
might never have happened

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without the help of fake news.

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The nation that unleashed the power
of fake news in the 19th century

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is also where more recent panic
about the subject began.

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TRUMP: It's fake news, it's fake...

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00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,160
I'm telling you,
it's just fake news.

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00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:07,200
It was during the last race
for the White House that we started

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00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:10,640
hearing so much about fake news.

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00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,160
The winner's definition of the term,
however, parts company

216
00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,640
with the usual meaning.

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00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,520
When President Trump
talks about fake news,

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00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:22,400
which he has done more or less
constantly since being elected

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00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:27,880
in 2016, what he means is
real news that he doesn't like.

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Your organisation is terrible. I'm
not going to give you a question.

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Can you state categorically...?
You are fake news. Sir... Go ahead.
Can you state categorically that...?

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00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:39,800
In Trump's topsy-turvy world, by
denouncing real news as fake news,

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00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:43,280
he and his supporters allow
real fake news to flourish.

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Confused? You're meant to be.

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00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:50,520
Trump tweets the phrase regularly

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00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:54,040
as part of his war
on the mainstream media,

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00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:57,440
and a frequent target
is The New York Times.

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Ironically, a paper that has long
been renowned for its accuracy

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00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:06,520
owes a massive debt to the fake news
crisis of the 1890s.

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A man called Adolph Ochs was
so horrified by the sensationalism

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00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:14,280
of Pulitzer and Hearst,

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00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:18,440
he purchased The Times to provide
a more reliable alternative.

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00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:23,840
It's now run by
ex-BBC head Mark Thompson.

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Adolph Ochs bought
the failing New York Times,

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it really was failing in the 1890s,
with a vision of a different

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kind of journalism.

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It was going to be accurate,
it was going to be serious,

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00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:40,640
it was going to be accompanied
by intelligent and civil opinion

239
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,120
from every perspective,
and it changed journalism.

240
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:48,600
His vision was an idealistic one,
but he made it work financially.

241
00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:52,840
To the surprise of a very cynical
industry, there was a real call

242
00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:57,560
for it, and the story of real news
has been a commercial success story

243
00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,080
for most of the time.

244
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:03,240
But I'm interested because
real news is under attack.

245
00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:07,000
At this moment in time,
the President's trying to define you

246
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:08,520
as fake news.

247
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:11,360
Yeah, it's a very interesting
and in some ways rather clever

248
00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,600
little trope by Donald Trump that,
you know, you should doubt all news,

249
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:21,680
that all of this comes from some
agenda, and who's to say what's true

250
00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,640
and what's not true? They're not
necessarily even trying to persuade

251
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:26,680
people to believe their version,

252
00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:29,840
they're just trying to cast doubt
on all of it.

253
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,720
It's sort of an attack on the idea
that we communally share a view

254
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,120
of what might be true.

255
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:37,400
You could argue that Donald Trump

256
00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:41,400
and some of the other populist
leaders have decided that reality

257
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:43,600
may not suit their purpose,

258
00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:46,320
and would therefore
like to cast doubt on it.

259
00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:50,160
In the end, the best journalism
is grounded on an idea

260
00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,880
that there are facts,
that things actually happen,

261
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,720
and that although, of course,
every journalist brings some

262
00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:00,120
preconceptions to the party,
notwithstanding that,

263
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:05,440
you can do a pretty good job
of reflecting the world as it is.

264
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,720
When it comes to capturing
the world as it is,

265
00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:13,560
the written word is only one
of the available tools.

266
00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:19,720
Images have also long been used
to represent reality,

267
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:24,120
though with these, too,
fakery is always a danger.

268
00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:27,480
At this memorial
to the American Civil War,

269
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:34,280
artistic tradition brings a familiar
idealised heroism to its subject.

270
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:38,040
But that conflict was also one
of the first to be portrayed

271
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:40,640
with a new technology.

272
00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,680
Since its invention in the 1830s,

273
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:48,280
photography had promised
a new standard of authenticity.

274
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,920
War photographs,
like these by Alexander Gardner,

275
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:55,520
displayed an unprecedented
level of realism.

276
00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:01,240
He took this photo in 1863,
after the Battle of Gettysburg.

277
00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:05,720
It's a powerful shot,
but this pioneering photojournalist

278
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,880
thought he could achieve
an even more potent image,

279
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:13,600
so he and an assistant dragged the
dead body of the Confederate soldier

280
00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:16,640
40 yards away from
where he'd actually fallen,

281
00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:20,280
and rearranged it
in a more dramatic setting.

282
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:27,440
For extra pathos, the corpse's
head has now been turned

283
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:29,280
to face the camera.

284
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:35,600
And that's not the fallen soldier's
rifle pointing up to the heavens.

285
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,320
It's a prop that Gardner
carried around with him.

286
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,680
To inspire pity in the viewer,

287
00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:43,560
he's composed the photo

288
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:46,120
as if it were a painting.

289
00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:49,520
There was an understanding
photography could be flexible.

290
00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:51,600
Nowadays, we wouldn't
accept any of this.

291
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:53,880
We would not, no,
this would be definitely seen

292
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,880
as an ethical violation,
but at the time,

293
00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:01,600
people were learning the rules
of photography of real situations.

294
00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:06,160
What was acceptable behaviour
for photojournalists

295
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,720
took decades to resolve.

296
00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,480
At a meeting of the Photographers'
Association Of America,

297
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:14,480
one speaker declared he sought,

298
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:18,440
"Not literal but spiritual
and eternal truth."

299
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,360
He rejected what he called
"the falseness of ultra realism"

300
00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:26,720
and confessed,
"I admire legitimate faking,

301
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:30,360
"faking which produces
the results desired."

302
00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,560
But the photography
of William Mumler,

303
00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,640
like this self-portrait,

304
00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:44,000
was felt by many to go
way beyond legitimate faking.

305
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:49,560
Look at the slightly
blurry woman on the left.

306
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:54,360
During the 1860s, when Gardner
was rearranging Confederate corpses,

307
00:19:54,360 --> 00:19:58,040
Mumler opened studios
in Boston and New York,

308
00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:02,320
where customers would
sit for him, alone.

309
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,280
But when Mumler delivered the
prints, another figure appeared

310
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:12,680
in the frame, a ghostly photo-bomber
from beyond the grave,

311
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:16,440
and many of Mumler's customers
were convinced that the camera

312
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,800
could detect
what their own eyes could not -

313
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,360
the presence of a dear,
departed loved one.

314
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,560
Since America was grieving
on an unprecedented scale

315
00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,640
during the Civil War years,

316
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:36,360
Mumler had no shortage of clients.

317
00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:39,680
Spiritualism was a growing
movement at the time,

318
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:45,400
and some thought his work offered
scientific proof of the afterlife.

319
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,520
He was using the mystification
of a new technology,

320
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,920
but it was definitely cheating,
and he would go off and develop them

321
00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,400
and come back and say,
"Look, here in this picture,

322
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,560
"over your shoulder,
you know who that is, don't you?"

323
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,480
And the sitter would
say, "Uncle Homer?"

324
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,120
"Yes! Uncle Homer!
It's Uncle Homer!"

325
00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:07,840
It was ludicrous, and that's
where it becomes a little troubling,

326
00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:12,880
cos he preyed on people's real grief
and desire and passion, and he made

327
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:14,800
a lot of money from it.

328
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:23,560
The New York authorities arrested
Mumler and charged him with fraud.

329
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,640
And he wasn't the only one
put on trial in 1869.

330
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,440
So was photography itself.

331
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:37,840
The prosecution called a series
of photographers who put forward

332
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,920
nine different techniques

333
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:43,200
by which Mumler
could've achieved his results,

334
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,520
and none of them were supernatural.

335
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:51,280
Mumler's legal team called a large
number of his satisfied customers,

336
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,320
including a Supreme Court Judge.

337
00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:58,320
These people absolutely believed
what the camera told them,

338
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,760
and they saw no reason
for the law to interfere.

339
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:05,200
The prosecution hit back
with a star witness,

340
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,480
a man who'd made a fortune creating
fake exhibits for his circuses,

341
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,120
Phineas T Barnum.

342
00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:14,960
On the basis of
"it takes one to know one",

343
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:18,200
Barnum declared Mumler a charlatan,

344
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:22,480
and he made a sensational photograph
of his own.

345
00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:30,400
Hovering over Barnum's shoulder
is President Lincoln,

346
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,880
who had been assassinated
four years previously.

347
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:38,480
When the judge gave his verdict,
he declared himself,

348
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,960
"Morally convinced that trick
and deception has been practised

349
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:44,800
"by the prisoner."

350
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:50,360
These visions of the afterlife
were fake views but, legally,

351
00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:54,920
the prosecution had failed to prove
which fraudulent technique

352
00:22:54,920 --> 00:23:01,120
Mumler had used, so, reluctantly,
the judge had to dismiss the case.

353
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,600
Yet even after the disgrace
of the trial,

354
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:11,360
Mumler still attracted
select customers.

355
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,480
Three years later, he was
commissioned to take a portrait

356
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,840
of Mary Lincoln,
the widow of Abraham Lincoln,

357
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:22,600
who, yes, you guessed it,
made a posthumous appearance.

358
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:27,160
Why would an intelligent woman
believe this was an actual photo

359
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,520
of her dead husband,
given that Barnum had demonstrated

360
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:35,760
in court how easy it was
to fake this exact scenario?

361
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,920
Presumably, she wanted
to believe that the great man

362
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:41,320
was still there to look after her.

363
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:45,400
After the trauma of seeing him
gunned down in the theatre,

364
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,280
she must have wanted
consolation from any source,

365
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,880
however implausible.

366
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:56,320
And that is the common thread
with many fake news stories -

367
00:23:56,320 --> 00:24:02,480
people are more likely to believe
a lie if they want it to be true.

368
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:09,920
And just as Mumler hadn't been
entirely discredited by the trial,

369
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:14,280
photography hadn't been entirely
vindicated either.

370
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,120
"Who, henceforth, can trust
the accuracy of a photograph?"

371
00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:22,360
wrote a shocked journalist
from the New York World.

372
00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:26,080
"Photographs have been treasured
in the belief they could not lie,

373
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,520
"and now comes the revelation
they can be made to lie,

374
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,480
"and with a most
deceiving exactness."

375
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,760
In the age of Photoshop
and selfie filters,

376
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,120
most people are well aware
of how easy it is to crop out

377
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:47,440
unflattering details or smooth away
blemishes from a still image.

378
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,840
By contrast, for most
of their history, moving pictures

379
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,200
were seen as more trustworthy.

380
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,520
You basically needed a
Hollywood special effects budget

381
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,240
to create convincing fakes.

382
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,640
So, documentaries, for instance,

383
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,400
just show you human life
the way it really is.

384
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,440
Obviously you would never
find fakery on the BBC,

385
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,360
and I would never mislead you.

386
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,640
UPBEAT CLASSICAL MUSIC REMIX

387
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,840
As you can see,
I'm now ready for Strictly.

388
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,400
And I think you'll agree
I'm an obvious winner.

389
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:54,600
OK, so I confess,
and you may possibly have suspected,

390
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,400
that wasn't me.

391
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,000
The sequence you just saw was
created by visual artist Eric Drass,

392
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,600
who explores the effects
of technology

393
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,360
on our understanding of truth.

394
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:13,440
So, this is created using a piece
of software that learns your face,

395
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:15,720
what's known as deepfake.

396
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,520
The software itself
comes from the internet,

397
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,440
downloaded for free,
and if you've got a teenager

398
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,440
with a super-powerful gaming
computer in their bedroom,

399
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,440
that's just the kind of kit
you need to do this kind of fakery.

400
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:33,160
Right. Deepfake is generally used
for pornographic clips.

401
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,920
You take the face of a famous
actress and you map it onto the body

402
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,720
of a pornographic star
and you send that out.

403
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:42,920
Secret sex tape.

404
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,160
Oh, well, I'm delighted you haven't
decided to do that with it!

405
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,800
It immediately seems to be, "Well,
I can put someone in a compromising

406
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,440
"position, I can blackmail someone"?
Absolutely.

407
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,160
Well, this one here of Obama...

408
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,960
We're entering an era in which our
enemies can make it look like

409
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,280
anyone is saying anything
at any point in time.

410
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,280
For instance, they could
have me say things like,

411
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,680
"President Trump
is a total and complete dipshit."

412
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:13,600
The actor Jordan Peele is able
to not only give a convincing voice,

413
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:17,000
but he's able to manipulate
the video footage of Obama to match.

414
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,160
But how we move forward...

415
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,760
in the age of information,

416
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,800
is going to be the difference

417
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,360
between whether we survive
or whether we become some kind of

418
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:29,200
fucked-up dystopia.

419
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:33,000
Pretty effective. Is the
dystopian vision the correct one?

420
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,440
It's inevitably going to used
for something really grim.

421
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,200
That clip of Obama, we enjoy the
fact that it sounds like him

422
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,600
and looks like him, but we know
it's not because of what he says,

423
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,360
whereas if you make it
something plausible,

424
00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:46,960
it's much more likely to spread.
Yeah.

425
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,920
We all live in our own filter
bubbles and tend to share content

426
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,560
that we agree with,
so if I see a politician I hate

427
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,600
saying something objectionable,
I'm much more likely to pass it on

428
00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,600
to my friends and believe
that it's true

429
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,280
because my own world view
is being supported.

430
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:04,640
And do we have any
defence against that?

431
00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:08,920
The best defence
is to remain suspicious.

432
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,320
But as we keep seeing,
people often aren't suspicious

433
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,800
about things they want to believe.

434
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,040
And that helps explain
the popularity of a particular type

435
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:24,040
of fake news online.

436
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:25,520
Here's an example.

437
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,880
During 2016's American elections,

438
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:31,360
the Pope endorsing Trump was the

439
00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:34,200
most shared news item on Facebook.

440
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:38,160
It was written as a wind-up,
but was so widely believed

441
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,280
some even think it
swung the election.

442
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,400
This is worrying terrain for me
because the defence used by several

443
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,640
of the most controversial
sources of fake news

444
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,880
is that they are producing satire.

445
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,600
One of the leading offenders,

446
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,280
who keeps fictionally bumping off
Hillary Clinton in ludicrous ways,

447
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,800
is a former construction worker,
called Christopher Blair.

448
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,320
A purveyor of fake news, that's me.

449
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,880
Right. I'm glad you're laughing.

450
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,240
VOICEOVER: His most popular stories
have been read by millions,

451
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:21,120
including one reporting that Obama
has made a fortune in royalties

452
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:23,840
from the word "Obamacare".

453
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,920
Every once in a while,
a post will go viral.

454
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,240
It means that the headline plus
the featured image plus the story

455
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,240
elicited an emotional response
from a whole bunch of people,

456
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,160
and if you get a million page views
on something and you have ads,

457
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,240
you're going to make some money on
it. Do we make a lot of money?

458
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,080
Sometimes. There have been times
when I made a whole bunch of money.

459
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,040
Typically, no,
we make next to nothing.

460
00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:46,200
I'm interested in
the people who read it.

461
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:52,280
I make it my business to mess
with not necessarily just people

462
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,880
who have different political views,
but political extremists

463
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,120
on the other side, the "alt-right"
is what we call them.

464
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,560
OK, so tell me how
you actually do it.

465
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:07,240
So, you take Obama, Clinton, Pelosi,
and attach something to it,

466
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:12,000
a crime, an injury, a death,
and add something as silly

467
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,880
as possible to make sure
that some reasonable person

468
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,200
is going to be able to say,
"I don't know about this."

469
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,720
How do you feel about
the people who do believe it?

470
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,960
Because I'm terribly worried that
you would put a story out

471
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,640
and that becomes part of their world
view, and you've done that. Right.

472
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,120
Every article has the word
"satire" in it.

473
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,200
It's before the title,
after the title again.

474
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:35,760
The entire operation is satire.

475
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,960
But why do they believe it, then?
What is it? An emotional response?

476
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:41,160
Confirmation bias, 100%.

477
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,480
It's so easy to just pass
something along that confirms

478
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,320
what you believe.

479
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:48,360
I'm serving them what they want.

480
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:52,560
The number-one comment
that we get on our pages,

481
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,880
"I hope this is true."

482
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,800
I'm still not entirely
convinced that stories

483
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,240
like these don't have
real-world consequences,

484
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,760
especially in our politically
polarised times.

485
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,200
Is your conscience clear?
Oh, I sleep very well at night.

486
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:13,320
I don't believe that I'm doing
anything different from the people

487
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,520
who sell the supermarket tabloids.

488
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,000
Do you believe if there was,
you know, the next election,

489
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,840
and you were out there in force,
you could change minds either way?

490
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,000
No, I don't believe I can change
minds. People who share my headlines

491
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,120
out into cyberspace without reading
them, without looking at them,

492
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:29,800
things like that, they were going to
vote for Donald Trump.

493
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:33,080
They weren't sitting on some fence
waiting for my satire to push them

494
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,280
over to the dark side.
That's not the way this works.

495
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,640
Unfortunately,
they are lower-information,

496
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,600
lower-educated, ignorant people.

497
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:44,120
My goal is to say,
"Why are you so dumb?"

498
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:52,680
Now, the magazine I edit has itself
been accused of being fake news.

499
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,640
An American university put us
on a media black list,

500
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:59,000
basically cos they didn't understand
when we were serious

501
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,120
and when we were joking.

502
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:05,000
As we keep seeing, just because
something looks like news,

503
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,880
that doesn't mean it is.
And that critical attitude

504
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:12,760
is also central
to any investigative journalism.

505
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:17,680
Rule number one has to be,
"Is this from a reliable source?"

506
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,360
Take, for example, a book that's
getting five-star reviews

507
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,600
and purports to be
"a shocking expose".

508
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:27,880
"A must-read if you want the truth."

509
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,320
"Essential to understanding
the Hidden Hand by which the world

510
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,880
"is governed and led."

511
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,520
"This is propably," probably,
"one of the books that's

512
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,760
"going to be banned,
so buy it when it's still possible."

513
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:45,600
At the moment, it's certainly not
difficult to get hold of.

514
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,000
Just one click and it
can be at your door.

515
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:56,160
The Protocols Of The Learned Elders
Of Zion purports to reveal

516
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,320
the detailed plans with which a
Jewish elite

517
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,920
will take over the world,
starting with finance,

518
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,280
politics, and the media.

519
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,040
Spoiler alert -
there is no such plot.

520
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:14,600
This is an idiotic
and largely incomprehensible

521
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,280
anti-Semitic conspiracy theory,

522
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:22,800
which was comprehensively debunked
nearly 100 years ago.

523
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:29,120
What is unbelievable
is that it's so freely available now

524
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:34,080
and so many people still choose
to believe it's true.

525
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,680
But then, I would say that,
wouldn't I?

526
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:42,640
Because the press is already
entirely in their hands.

527
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,720
Baseless preconceptions..
BELL RINGS

528
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,080
..and irrational obsessions...
BELL RINGS

529
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:56,520
..have spawned some of the most
malign fake news.

530
00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:00,360
A Russian newspaper, in 1903,
first brought to life

531
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,680
the Elders Of Zion.

532
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,720
They were blamed for spreading
"decadent capitalism"

533
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,760
and "dangerous democracy"
in order to undermine the Tsar.

534
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:13,280
A few years later,
the Protocols were used as proof

535
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:17,000
that the Communist revolution
had been dreamt up by Jews,

536
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,360
who'd also instigated
the First World War.

537
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:26,720
The Protocols updated anti-Semitism
for the age of the mass media,

538
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:31,720
making prejudice seem more
legitimate by presenting it as news.

539
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:35,680
The introduction to the early
editions claimed that the minutes

540
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:40,720
of this Jewish plot had been stolen
from a secret meeting and passed

541
00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:44,960
to the publisher by someone
who mysteriously died.

542
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:49,400
It sounds like classic undercover,
investigative journalism,

543
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:53,280
but it's simply lies
disguised as leaks.

544
00:34:55,680 --> 00:35:00,640
Yet despite clearly recycling
ancient, offensive stereotypes,

545
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:05,840
people across Europe still chose
to believe that this book was true.

546
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:12,520
In Britain, it prompted serious
calls for an official enquiry

547
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:15,120
into the alleged conspiracy.

548
00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,680
In 1921, however, The Times
published a series of articles

549
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:25,440
which showed how long passages
of the Protocols had in fact

550
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:30,600
been copied, more or less word
for word, from an old French novel,

551
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,320
one which had nothing
to do with Judaism.

552
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:39,040
The sinister Elders Of Zion were
shown to be entirely fictitious.

553
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,400
They were fake Jews.

554
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:46,160
This was encouraging evidence
that journalism can correct lies

555
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,400
as well as spread them.

556
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,320
And the reality is that nowadays,

557
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,120
journalists have to do
more and more of this.

558
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,960
When I started, the main job
was finding new stories.

559
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:03,200
Now, more and more time
is spent debunking fake stories.

560
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:07,040
Depressingly, even when you
lay out the facts clearly

561
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,040
and comprehensively,
as The Times does here,

562
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,080
sometimes it's still not enough.

563
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,040
The most pernicious thing
about conspiracy theories

564
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:21,440
is how they persist, even after
they've been thoroughly discredited.

565
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,640
HE SPEAKS GERMAN

566
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:27,000
When the Nazis came to power,
Joseph Goebbels declared

567
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,080
the Protocols could still be put
"to very good use",

568
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,520
and so, by the 1930s,
the book was being studied

569
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,520
in German classrooms.

570
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:38,640
Goebbels didn't care it was forged.

571
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,480
What mattered, he said, was
"the inner, not the factual truth

572
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,400
"of the Protocols".

573
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,840
Goebbels' boss had used a different
argument when he praised

574
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:51,880
the Protocols in Mein Kampf.

575
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,960
Hitler did concede that some
German newspapers had reported

576
00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:00,560
that the Protocols were forgery,
but these "groans and moans",

577
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:07,440
he argued, were actually "evidence
in favour of their authenticity".

578
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,800
"If these newspapers say
they're fake, they must be true."

579
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,880
Basically, he's telling his
followers not to believe

580
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:16,880
in the mainstream media.

581
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:24,760
70 years after the defeat
of the Nazis, the Protocols live on,

582
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,560
notably in the Islamic world.

583
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:33,160
Here it is in 2019
at a Cairo book fair.

584
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:38,080
Online, anti-Semitism sits alongside
hatred of every religious,

585
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,040
ethnic or minority group imaginable.

586
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:46,760
Fake news stories on Facebook
fuelled violence against Muslims

587
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,160
in Burma, while in India,
people have been lynched

588
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:53,160
as a result of lies
spread on WhatsApp.

589
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,640
And back in Washington,
this pizzeria suffered grim,

590
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:03,920
real-world consequences
from online conspiracy theories.

591
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,360
I've come to meet its owner,
James Alefantis.

592
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,880
If you look up my name now,
on any platform... Yeah.

593
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,080
..it's disgusting what appears.

594
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,240
If you look up the name of the
restaurant, it's pretty bad, too.

595
00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:24,080
YouTube and Instagram and everything
is filled with just...lies.

596
00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:30,520
This story began in 2016,
when WikiLeaks released e-mails

597
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,840
from Hillary Clinton's campaign.

598
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,800
Among them was an exchange
about James supplying pizza

599
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,320
for a Democrat fundraising dinner.

600
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,200
That was all conspiracy
theorists needed

601
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:48,240
to spin some
fantastical accusations.

602
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:53,720
So, you find out that you are online
being described as running

603
00:38:53,720 --> 00:38:57,120
an enormous paedophile ring,
based, as far as I can see,

604
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:03,600
on the fact that Comet Ping Pong and
cheese pizza has the initials CP,

605
00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:06,440
which is the same as
child pornography.

606
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,160
I mean, this is the level
of the evidence, isn't it?

607
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,480
People think that Comet Ping Pong,

608
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,040
which is a family-friendly
restaurant,

609
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:17,000
is the centre of a place where
Hillary Clinton

610
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,800
and these political people
were either kidnapping children

611
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:25,160
and selling them, in order
to retain their immense wealth,

612
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:29,480
or sacrificing them
in ritualistic sacrifices,

613
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:32,600
or sexually abusing them.

614
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:35,360
There was a big thing
about this place was operating

615
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:36,560
with a basement?

616
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,600
They claim there are tunnels leading
from this to the White House

617
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,760
and that Obama is travelling
here to Comet in secret tunnels

618
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:47,240
from the White House. And you
pointed out there's not a basement.

619
00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:51,040
It's difficult to exaggerate
just how mad this is.

620
00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:54,440
In the beginning, we thought, this
is just an online something. Yeah.

621
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:58,600
And until it broke through,
out of this online computer screen

622
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:02,600
and into the real world,
we were basically OK.

623
00:40:04,240 --> 00:40:07,400
The headline is "Pizzagate is real".

624
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,640
The only question is, exactly what
is it? But something...

625
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:14,960
American shock jock Alex Jones
recklessly broadcast the theory

626
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,240
to a much wider audience
through his show.

627
00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:20,200
There's just so much evil...

628
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,040
In a trademark rant,
he urged his followers

629
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:24,680
to investigate further.

630
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,200
It's up to you to research
it for yourself, but...

631
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:30,040
And one of them duly
drove from North Carolina

632
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:32,280
to the Washington restaurant.

633
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:38,560
It was December 4th and a man
walked in the front door

634
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,520
into a crowded dining room
filled with families eating,

635
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:46,320
carrying a loaded,
large AR-15 assault rifle,

636
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:51,800
walked through this dining room
here, down this bar.

637
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:55,200
VOICEOVER: Of course, he couldn't
find the basement full of horrors,

638
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,160
because it didn't exist.

639
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:01,600
This gunman went to this one
locked spot and at this point

640
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:04,880
he shoots his AR-15...
He lets off his rifle?

641
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,640
Yes, into this door,
and the bullets went

642
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,800
into our computer system here.
Can I have a look? Yeah.

643
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:14,920
Just check. And there's our
computer system still there,

644
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:16,520
and our messy closet.

645
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:19,880
But no secret basement.

646
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,080
So he realised
that there's nothing there.

647
00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:28,040
Yeah, and immediately laid
down his weapons and he surrenders

648
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:29,760
to the police.

649
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,400
And he ended up just
shooting a computer. Yeah.

650
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:34,480
I like the symbolism of that!

651
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:37,880
He shot the only thing
that had actually spread the trouble

652
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,440
in the first place.
Did he say anything?

653
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:45,560
Later, in an interview,
he said maybe the intel wasn't 100%.

654
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,320
One of the great understatements.

655
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,960
Luckily, no-one here was killed,
but as the judge said in this case,

656
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,200
many people could have.

657
00:41:56,200 --> 00:42:00,120
I still get lots of threatening
messages and the conspiracy theory

658
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:02,240
continues very strongly online.

659
00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:06,280
They claim that this gunman is a
false flag and that Hillary Clinton

660
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:11,080
or I had hired him to distract
from our heinous crimes.

661
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:16,160
Why is it so hard to argue
with this sort of fake news?

662
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:20,480
I mean, you come up with a complete
and utter rebuttal of all the things

663
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,320
they say, and they believe it
anyway.

664
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:25,520
There is no appropriate response.

665
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:27,720
If someone calls you the worst
thing in the world,

666
00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:30,240
and you say, I'm not that thing,
it's obviously evidence

667
00:42:30,240 --> 00:42:32,040
that you are that thing. Yeah.

668
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:35,760
It's not disprovable, because
the truth isn't what it's about.

669
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:37,600
The truth doesn't matter.

670
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,120
This place is a powerful testament
to the damage that can be caused

671
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,640
by malicious individuals,

672
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:51,240
but potentially even more corrosive
is another category of fake news.

673
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,840
On April the 17th 1917,

674
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,080
as the First World War dragged
gruellingly along,

675
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:03,800
British newspapers carried
a horrifying story.

676
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,040
This is the discovery
behind enemy lines

677
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:12,720
of a kadaververwertungsanstalt,

678
00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:14,880
which The Times helpfully translates

679
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,000
as a corpse exploitation
establishment.

680
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:24,280
A factory was extracting fat
from the bodies of dead soldiers

681
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:30,600
to be used in the manufacture
of soap, pig food and explosives.

682
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:37,160
The report cited German documents
and gave some grisly details.

683
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:42,600
A great cauldron, where human flesh
is steamed for six to eight hours.

684
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:47,280
It's specific, it's repulsive -
and, yes, it's fake.

685
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,000
There are occasions where fake news

686
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,760
has been undertaken with the full
knowledge of the state and justified

687
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:56,800
as being in the national interest.

688
00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:58,440
BELL RINGS

689
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:02,680
And it's not just nasty dictators

690
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:05,560
who get up to such dirty tricks.

691
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,560
Sometimes, the good guys do it, too.

692
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,160
So if it's our lot responsible,

693
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:14,480
is that OK?

694
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:22,600
The corpse factory story

695
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:26,400
was signed off and spread
around the world from here.

696
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:31,760
In 1917, the Foreign Office
housed the innocuous-sounding

697
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,160
Department of Information.

698
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:38,040
In fact, the British Empire's
HQ for disinformation.

699
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,840
The staff within these walls knew
full well that the enemy was not

700
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:47,560
turning corpses
into bombs and bars of soap.

701
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:50,760
The piece in The Times hinged
on official references

702
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:53,400
to processing cadavers.

703
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,440
But the German word for cadaver
in this context

704
00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:58,600
clearly meant animal carcasses,

705
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,760
not human bodies -
and they were aware of it.

706
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:05,880
But the Ministry of Information
chose to ignore this

707
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:09,320
and let that fact
be lost in translation.

708
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:17,560
The story caused global outrage,
particularly in China,

709
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,320
where the dead are
especially venerated.

710
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:25,520
British spies believed the corpse
factory lie was what persuaded

711
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:28,640
the Chinese to abandon
their previous neutrality

712
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:30,880
and join the war on Germany.

713
00:45:33,720 --> 00:45:36,320
So, could the government
claim to be justified

714
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:39,400
in weaponising this story?

715
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:43,040
After years of slaughter
in the trenches, some people

716
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:47,120
believed Britain should try anything
which might help to finally

717
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:48,880
win the war.

718
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:53,320
The caricature of the barbaric Hun

719
00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:56,960
was frequently used to stiffen
resolve at home,

720
00:45:56,960 --> 00:46:00,320
and since the Germans really did
commit some atrocities,

721
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:04,560
surely it didn't matter if not
every story about them was true?

722
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:09,880
On the other hand, doesn't lying
make us as bad as the enemy?

723
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,880
Stafford Cripps, who served
in Churchill's War Cabinet

724
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:16,240
a generation later,
said of black propaganda,

725
00:46:16,240 --> 00:46:19,240
"If this is the sort of thing
needed to win the war,

726
00:46:19,240 --> 00:46:21,320
"why, I'd rather lose it."

727
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:28,680
The trouble is, lies have
unforeseeable consequences.

728
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:33,120
25 years after the corpse factory
story, Germans really did build

729
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:36,680
industrial facilities
to process human bodies.

730
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:40,800
But earlier reports of the Holocaust
were disbelieved because,

731
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,920
as one American diplomat put it,
they sounded too much like

732
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,720
"leftover horror tales
of the last war."

733
00:46:48,720 --> 00:46:51,720
That's one of the biggest
problems with fake news -

734
00:46:51,720 --> 00:46:54,240
it makes people doubt
the truth as well.

735
00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:59,640
If, say, in the future, a dictator
had weapons of mass destruction,

736
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:03,440
who would believe the government
or the journalist who said so?

737
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,600
The British state no longer runs
disinformation campaigns abroad,

738
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:14,560
or at least, so we're told.

739
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:20,840
But other states are less squeamish
about propaganda.

740
00:47:23,240 --> 00:47:26,720
We know Russia has paid
for online advertisements,

741
00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:31,320
including these, to influence
elections in America and Europe.

742
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:36,000
It is estimated over 350 million
unsuspecting voters have seen

743
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:41,680
the material, which pretends to be
posted by concerned local citizens.

744
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:45,920
And in 2018, in response
to accusations they'd sent Novichok

745
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:50,200
to Salisbury, the Kremlin took
to Twitter and its noisy polemical

746
00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,600
TV channel, Russia Today.

747
00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:56,680
And to top all that off,
the British insisted...

748
00:47:56,680 --> 00:48:01,760
They put forward 46 alternative
theories for whodunnit and why.

749
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,360
Contradictions everywhere.

750
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:11,520
This is the type of disinformation
which most worries our politicians.

751
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:20,960
There is a deliberate strategy
from the Russians to try

752
00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:24,480
and influence news and opinion
in other countries, and elections

753
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:26,560
as well, through these techniques.

754
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:29,240
I think principally to divide
communities and societies,

755
00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:31,160
to turn people against each other.

756
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,040
We've seen them putting out
all sorts of conspiracy theories

757
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,880
about things like the
Skripal poisoning in Salisbury.

758
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:39,360
And do you think this is effective,
you know - they're not hugely

759
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:40,880
convincing, are they?

760
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,760
They're not, but their purpose
is not necessarily to persuade you

761
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:46,880
of an alternative truth, it's to
make you disbelieve everything,

762
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:50,200
so you no longer know
what's true or not true.

763
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:54,200
And I think they are glad to see
that sort of chaos being unleashed.

764
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,160
You led an investigation,

765
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:58,560
a Parliamentary investigation
into fake news.

766
00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:01,600
So, how scared should we be?

767
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:03,600
I think we should be scared by this.

768
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:08,640
Not just by the fact that I think
fake news is crowding out real news

769
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:11,880
on social media and people find
it often very difficult to

770
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:14,600
distinguish between what is fake
and what's real.

771
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:18,360
And alongside that, about half the
people in this country consume news

772
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:21,720
from a social media feed, and that
feed could easily be gained

773
00:49:21,720 --> 00:49:25,280
by bad actors who want to change
what you think and what you see.

774
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,680
Without any... There is no regulator
that can stop that happening.

775
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:31,880
And that means, I think,
that our democracy,

776
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:36,680
our society, is open to massive
abuse by anyone who wants to invest

777
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:38,720
their resources in doing it.

778
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:41,920
I mean, that's the diagnosis -
we should be frightened,

779
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,000
democracy is at risk.
What do we do?

780
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,480
If you take, for example,
the Russians buying adverts

781
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,280
on social media to target Americans

782
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,240
in the American
presidential election,

783
00:49:51,240 --> 00:49:54,080
those ads were approved
by the Facebook ad-check team.

784
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:56,120
This is someone committing
a federal offence

785
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:58,920
by using foreign money to try
and influence voters in America.

786
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:01,120
And when we asked Facebook
about this, they said,

787
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,200
"If we'd been told this was going
on, we would have looked into it

788
00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:07,320
"and done something about it and
cooperated with the investigation."

789
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,880
So it's your fault for not
telling us? Exactly, so...

790
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,000
The company with the most complex
research teams in the world.

791
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:15,720
If you ran a bank like that, you'd
lose your licence. If you said,

792
00:50:15,720 --> 00:50:18,440
"I can see someone is laundering
money, but no-one asked me about it,

793
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:19,920
"so I didn't do anything."

794
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:23,520
So, in that situation, the only
people that could really intervene

795
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:25,840
are the companies that are
providing the technology.

796
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:35,040
The British Museum,
that traditional temple to truth,

797
00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:39,320
might seem an unexpected destination
for a history of fake news.

798
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:45,200
But at the end of the 19th century,
people here were confronted

799
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:50,560
with the same question Parliament is
grappling with in the 21st century -

800
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:53,280
what can be done about fake news?

801
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:03,400
For 140 years, this was
the home of the British Library.

802
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:07,080
The reading room was built
to be a cathedral of knowledge,

803
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:10,760
and obliged by law to keep
a copy of every British book,

804
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:14,680
and as many foreign ones
as possible, as well.

805
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:20,440
But in 1893, someone discovered
fake news on these shelves.

806
00:51:21,720 --> 00:51:25,240
What happened next has uncanny
parallels with much more recent

807
00:51:25,240 --> 00:51:27,360
debates about the internet.

808
00:51:27,360 --> 00:51:29,960
Do people have the right
to be forgotten,

809
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:33,680
and who should be held responsible
for fake news about them?

810
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,920
The victim of the fake news in
question was a remarkable American

811
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:43,560
called Victoria Woodhull,
who campaigned for female suffrage,

812
00:51:43,560 --> 00:51:48,320
and in 1872, was the first woman
ever to run to be president.

813
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:56,120
The contentious material originated
from that time and from New York,

814
00:51:56,120 --> 00:52:00,560
where Woodhull was also
the editor of her own newspaper.

815
00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:04,360
Arguing for sexual freedom
and against male hypocrisy,

816
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:08,600
Woodhull published an expose
about a famous preacher of the day,

817
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:14,080
Henry Ward Beecher,
who was having an adulterous affair.

818
00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:17,720
For exposing the truth
about the great and well-connected

819
00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:22,920
clergyman Beecher, she found herself
smeared by fake news reports.

820
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:26,880
Papers and pamphlets
accused her of being a drunk,

821
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:31,960
the mistress of a gambling den,
or the queen of prostitutes.

822
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:36,800
It's really easy to shut down
a woman by calling her a slut,

823
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:39,440
it instantaneously takes away
all her credibility.

824
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:42,480
It really works.
It has worked for generations.

825
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:46,760
You always criticise uppity women
for being sexually unconventional,

826
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:51,520
you smear them with whatever
is seen as bad in the context

827
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,480
of the times, and she was smeared
with all of that... Yeah.

828
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:58,320
..because she was challenging these
very entrenched and important mores,

829
00:52:58,320 --> 00:52:59,960
she was assaulted.

830
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:06,040
Woodhull was made out
to be the devil, literally.

831
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,760
And to escape the media storm,
she fled to Britain.

832
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:15,360
But when she discovered the lies
about her were preserved

833
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:17,680
for posterity in the British Museum,

834
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,840
she and her husband sent them
a letter of complaint.

835
00:53:22,720 --> 00:53:24,120
They accused the Library of

836
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:26,160
"bringing within the reach
of the public,

837
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:29,600
"obscene and defamatory literature."

838
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,920
What Victoria wanted
was for the offending publications

839
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:36,920
to be taken down
off the shelves permanently.

840
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:43,040
This caused great concern
to the chief librarian,

841
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:46,480
who the next day wrote,
"The trustees will not,

842
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,160
"I'm sure, sanction the principle
that a book is to be withdrawn

843
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:52,640
"merely because it is objected to.

844
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:55,800
"Such a principle might
have very extensive

845
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,040
"and very undesirable consequences."

846
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:02,080
He believed, of course,
that a library shouldn't be

847
00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:06,360
in the business of banning books,
nor of censoring history.

848
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:10,880
But Victoria was not a woman
who took no for an answer and,

849
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:15,280
incredibly, she decided to sue
the British Museum for libel.

850
00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:21,560
At a High Court hearing in 1894,

851
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,600
the museum's lawyer warned
of the consequences

852
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:28,040
if Victoria proved victorious.

853
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:34,400
He estimated that the library
would need to employ 110 experts

854
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:39,240
in libel law to inspect
the 315,000 new books

855
00:54:39,240 --> 00:54:41,920
added to the collection every year.

856
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:43,560
Surely, he argued,

857
00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:48,280
no library could be expected to
fact-check the books on its shelves?

858
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:52,720
Set against these arguments,
however,

859
00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:56,680
was the persuasive testimony
of Victoria herself.

860
00:54:56,680 --> 00:55:03,400
And the jury...sensationally
found in her favour.

861
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,520
However, on appeal, the museum won.

862
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:09,400
Clearly, they hadn't actually
published the material

863
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:13,440
that Victoria objected to,
neither had they originated it.

864
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:19,120
The judge ruled that librarians must
not be found guilty by association.

865
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:23,600
This was an important verdict
for freedom of information.

866
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:27,480
And, to this day, most people
would agree that libraries

867
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:30,720
should not be held liable
for their contents.

868
00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:35,160
But should the principle apply
to all sites that store information?

869
00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:38,760
The British Museum's arguments
have been put forward more recently

870
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:41,080
by the giants of Silicon Valley.

871
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:45,120
They say they can't be expected
to fact-check what's on their sites

872
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,960
and they are not publishers,
merely platforms.

873
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:53,320
Tech companies have a responsibility
because they are not just making

874
00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:57,280
the content available to you,
they are curating what you see.

875
00:55:57,280 --> 00:56:00,360
You are seeing content that's been
selected for you by the tech company

876
00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:03,000
because it thinks that's what
you're most interested in. Yes.

877
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:05,440
Which is very different
from a library. Indeed.

878
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:08,240
It's a system that's been designed
to make money for the platforms

879
00:56:08,240 --> 00:56:11,280
out of advertising. Though the
technology that's being used

880
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,000
to direct you towards
the perfect pair of trainers

881
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:17,240
could also be used to direct you
towards radicalised hate speech,

882
00:56:17,240 --> 00:56:20,800
disinformation, other harmful
content as well, and I think we

883
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:24,440
should call the tech companies out
on this and say they can do more to
stop it.

884
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:28,080
# We're half-awake

885
00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:31,280
# In a fake empire... #

886
00:56:33,240 --> 00:56:36,960
Given so many people
are online so much of the time,

887
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,160
and so much of what's out there
isn't true,

888
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:44,400
I believe there are potentially
very real threats from fake news.

889
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:49,880
The more hatred and vitriol
that shows up on these platforms,

890
00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:53,800
the more people are engaged,
and the more revenue they receive.

891
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:57,360
So they have monetised hatred
and fake news is the way

892
00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:02,320
they've done it? Yes. And people
get hurt from these things.

893
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:06,680
But all is not yet lost.

894
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:10,040
I think we can draw some hope
and some inspiration

895
00:57:10,040 --> 00:57:14,480
from how previous eras dealt
with their crises of trust.

896
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:18,160
Back in the 1890s, the arrival
of superfast printing presses

897
00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:22,320
and advertising
created a crazy period in the media.

898
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:25,760
You know, highly exaggerated
journalism arrived.

899
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:28,520
Now, we're seeing some of the
similar things with digital,

900
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,280
the immediacy of digital,
its global reach,

901
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:35,840
again makes it prey to all sorts of
distortions and abuse.

902
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:39,080
If you are an optimist, you say
history suggests that what happens

903
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:43,160
is people get used to this,
they take it with a pinch of salt,

904
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:48,360
they calm down and eventually
you get a kind of new equilibrium.

905
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:55,360
If we are to have genuine grounds
for such optimism,

906
00:57:55,360 --> 00:58:00,280
we do need to be ruthless
about a tendency all of us have,

907
00:58:00,280 --> 00:58:04,160
and one we've seen time and again
in the past and the present.

908
00:58:04,160 --> 00:58:06,800
We have to stop believing
news stories

909
00:58:06,800 --> 00:58:09,080
just because we want them
to be true.

910
00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:12,000
I'm not saying
don't believe in anything -

911
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:15,160
that's exactly what the peddlers
of fake news would love,

912
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:18,200
the idea that no-one even cares
what the truth is any more.

913
00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:22,280
But there are still such
things as objective facts,

914
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:25,200
events either did or didn't happen.

915
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:28,040
Not everything
is a matter of opinion.

916
00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:31,320
So I'm not arguing
for a more cynical public,

917
00:58:31,320 --> 00:58:36,280
I want a more sceptical public, who
question the new social media

918
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:40,400
in the same way they do
the old mainstream media.

919
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:42,960
Who is telling me this and why?

920
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:45,960
And do they actually
know anything about it?

921
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:50,880
In short, you have to be very
critical about who you trust.

922
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:52,640
Apart from me, obviously.

923
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:54,160
MUSIC: Fake Empire
by The National

924
00:58:54,160 --> 00:58:56,760
# Turn the light out, say goodnight

925
00:58:56,760 --> 00:59:00,440
# No thinking for a little while

926
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:02,360
# We're half-awake

927
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:05,400
# In a fake empire

928
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:09,280
# We're half-awake

929
00:59:09,280 --> 00:59:12,720
# In a fake empire... #