The bullhorns of misinformation

We don't know whether this particular item of fake news first appeared on a television news broadcast or was initially hatched by some fringe far-right website. Whether it began as a reporting error or whether, as it was more widely transmitted, more and more professional journalists blindly picked it up and propagated a rumor of the kind that is so often presented as absolute truth on social media.

Regardless of its provenance and even if the thread of its transmission cannot be fully explored, one thing is certain: Certain specific groups on Facebook acted like bullhorns, spreading the fake news that the perpetrators of the vicious attack earlier this month on a stationmaster at the Omonia metro stop in downtown Athens were "young, unaccompanied Algerian migrants."

It is at least ironic that one of these groups actually calls itself "Recording the Truth." The...