Editor’s Note: Searching for truth in a post-fact world

PLUS: The anatomy of fake news, and more from the latest issue of WIRED magazine. [View this email in your browser](#SPCLICKTOVIEW) [logo]( [WIRED logo]( 9.25.17 “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none,” wrote William Shakespeare, roughly 390 years before the first Internet browser. And if there’s one part of that dictum that has held online in recent years, it’s the middle: “trust a few.” We may not be doing so great at loving all or doing wrong to none. But there are, in fact, a few places we do trust online. Wikipedia for one. And Google. And when it gets to the more specific questions of politics, or celebrity, we do seem to trust Snopes. That was the starting point for Michelle Dean when she began to study the fact-checking site about six months ago: how is it that Snopes has come to play the central role that it plays in the great quest to identify truth online. But curiously, as she dug in, she found that [the story of Snopes isn’t as clean as some of the answers it gives](. As she writes, “Just as it’s hard for Snopes to nail down, absolutely, definitively, certain truths about the toxicity of a copper mug or the meaning of the president’s words, it can be trickier than expected to nail down the truth about Snopes.” I won’t give the story away, but I will say that it’s worth reading to the end—and it’s worth thinking about whether the story of Snopes should change the way you think of the stories written by Snopes. The piece is terrific. Trust me. Nicholas Thompson * Editor-in-Chief, WIRED Deep Dive Snopes and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World By Michelle Dean When you take a look at the internet's favorite myth-busting site, you see just how hard it is to pin down the truth. [Screen Capture of video ] Under the Hood Here’s How Fake News Works (and How the Internet Can Stop It) Many fake news peddlers didn’t care if Trump won or lost the election. They only wanted to pocket money. But the consequences of what they did shook the world. This is how it happened. Inside the Fake News Factory The Macedonian Teens Who Mastered Fake News By Samanth Subramanian These guys didn’t care if Trump won or lost the White House. They only wanted pocket money. But the consequences of what they did shook the world. [advertisement]( [tracking] [tracking] [tracking]( [tracking]( Get Wired Don't Let the Future Leave You Behind. Get 6 Months of WIRED Magazine for Just $5. SUBSCRIBE NOW More from Our Latest Issue Meet the CamperForce, Amazon's Nomadic Retiree Army By Jessica Bruder Inside the grueling, rootless lives of the RV dwellers who are spending their golden years working in the e-tail behemoth's warehouses. The October Issue: Our Cover Story The Replicant: Inside the Dark Future of Blade Runner 2049 By Brian Raftery What a sequel 35 years in the making can tell us about the state of sci-fi and America's appetite for dystopia. [advertisement]( [tracking] [tracking] [tracking]( [tracking]( [WIRED logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( This email was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e–mail address, newsletters@wired.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe](#SPCUSTOMOPTOUT) Copyright © Condé Nast 2017. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10038. All rights reserved. This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences]( WIRED · 520 3rd St, Third Floor · San Francisco, CA 94107 · USA