Around the world, people are getting their news from alternative sources like YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and a slew of algorithmically driven platforms. As the old saying goes, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

This session, led by Sanho Tree and 4th in the monthly series "Lessons from Resistance to Authoritarianism Around the World," will examine different case studies from around the world to show how easy it has become to shop for alternate realities around the world. If allowed to go unchecked, we will not be able to have a discussion about public policy if we can no longer agree on what constitutes a baseline for reality.

Sanho Tree is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and has been Director of its Drug Policy Project since 1998 and was a former military and diplomatic historian in the 1990s.

This session is the fourth in a monthly IPS series on: Lessons from Resistance to Authoritarianism Around the World.