Saving the internet, fake news warts and all

Tired of trolls? You won't win by controlling the internet, argues senior lecturer Paul Bernal

Remember when the internet was a thing of beauty – connecting us to long-lost friends, the innocent pleasure of buying books using “e-commerce”, of sharing photos of cats?

Since then we’ve seen the election of Donald Trump as US prez, Brexit, Cambridge Analytica, trolls and fake news.

The internet has evolved into something messy, unruly, imperfect - and politicised.

Oh, how the editors of Wired must be weeping - but University of East Anglia Law School senior lecture Paul Bernal who delivered our September lecture on the subject of tackling trolls and fake news reckons that they shouldn’t.

Paul - a senior lecturer in IT, IP and media law and whose research centres on human rights on the internet and the role of social media - reckoned this mess is the internet’s greatest strength. It is something we should accept and embrace in order to tackle the evils of fake news and trolls that permeate the internet and are affecting our politics, law and society.

You can savour again Paul's lecture via our video, on this page.

You can also get details about planned lectures in The Register's on-going series in the Lectures section of our site and also on Eventbrite. ®