Fake news
So even before the UK's general election campaign had officially begun, the Conservative Party managed to publish a video showing something that never happened. The clip, posted on the Conservatives' social media channels, showed the Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, failing to answer a question in a TV interview. In reality, he had given a full answer but, far from apologising for the deceit, the Conservatives said the video was obviously "humorous" and promptly put out a new version which was also false. The incident underlines social media's threat to the foundations of the electoral process. Viral clips (whether real or fake) are a key way of delivering messages to groups which no longer watch TV news or read newspapers. This one was viewed more than a million times after a BBC journalist highlighted it, and there's no effective sanction to prevent political parties continuing to saunter down this perilous path (which Facebook has made clear it won't block).