As my children started to study history at school (all of them have studied it to one level or another, Rosie to A-Level, Callum probably going to A-Level) they learned about provenance of source.
They learned to try to research whether the source was appropriate or not, whether it had validity, whether it was strong and secure and could be trusted.
What happened to that?
Today I came to work, and Callum had sent me (on WhatsApp) a video from TikTok.
It was some young TikTok guy telling a story of how a Russian submarine had gone missing carrying one of Russia’s most advanced nuclear weapons and that everybody should be terrified and run about with their hair on fire.
Not that I was concerned (I wasn’t) but I triangulated that through 2 or 3 other news sources (that I might find a little bit more trustworthy than TikTok) and there was no mention of this.
It’s worth remembering that TikTok is owned by the Chinese government effectively.
It’s definitely more in their interests to scare the sh*t out of us about Russian submarines than it is to ours.
Always worth a check just before you hit the panic button.
Blog Post Number - 3225