Policing the Truth

We are told that democracy is under threat because the veryidea of 'truth' is in crisis. Fake news spreads unchecked, social media warpsour sense of reality and the misinformed public are blamed for the resultingpolitical division and instability. Governments and media institutions alikeincreasingly insist that the future of democracy depends on winning the 'war ondisinformation'. But what if this diagnosis is wrong?In Policing the Truth, Justin Schlosberg argues thatthe real danger lies not in the spread of disinformation but in the growingculture of information control. He reveals how powerful institutions acrossliberal and populist democracies increasingly determine what can be known, saidand believed - while dissent and scepticism are routinely dismissed as threatsto truth itself. Drawing on years of rigorous original research, in-depthhistorical analysis and his own experiences as a self-described 'rogueacademic'- including sustained legal threats and public attacks triggered byresearch featured in this book - Schlosberg exposes the hidden mechanisms of anew form of McCarthyism that has taken root in Britain and beyond. As well astracing the historical origins of this phenomenon, he explains why today'sbattle over truth is, at its core, a struggle over who gets to define reality. Policing the Truth is a timely and necessaryintervention into one of the defining political and media debates of our ageand offers a powerful new framework for understanding democracy and freespeech.