In 2017, I wrote a short piece titled Publish and Be Damned, at: https://samueli.blogspot.com/2017/01/social-media-news-moguls.html reflecting on the responsibility we carry whenever we share information. At the time, my concern was simple: too many people were in a hurry to be first, to forward unverified stories, shocking images, or slanderous claims, often hiding behind phrases like “as received.”
Nearly a decade later, the problem has evolved. We are no longer just careless messengers. We are participants in a vast, invisible system that rewards outrage, speed, and sensation.
Social media platforms are not neutral notice boards. They are engines designed to keep attention. And attention is most easily captured by fear, anger, scandal, and shock. The more disturbing the content, the faster it spreads. The faster it spreads, the more the system rewards it. In this way, ordinary people become unwitting distributors of distortion.
Today, misinformation is not only shared by enthusiastic amateurs. It is sometimes generated by artificial intelligence, amplified by coordinated networks, and pushed by algorithms that do not distinguish between truth and falsehood, only between what engages and what does not.
This changes the moral equation.
In the past, one might have shared a false story out of ignorance. Today, every share is also a small act of participation in an economy of attention. We are no longer just passing along information. We are feeding a system.
This means the old excuse, “I only forwarded it,” is even less convincing now. The digital world has made each of us a publisher, an editor, and sometimes a broadcaster. With that power comes responsibility.
The question is no longer only, “Is this true?”
It is also, “What system am I strengthening by sharing this?”
Am I contributing to clarity, or to confusion?
To understanding, or to outrage?
To peace, or to suspicion?
Publishing has always carried consequences. In 1953, Hugh Cudlipp captured this truth in the provocative title of his book, Publish and Be Damned! His warning feels more urgent today than ever before.
In this algorithmic age, the greatest act of responsibility may not be speaking first, but pausing. Not forwarding instantly, but verifying patiently. Not amplifying noise, but choosing what edifies.
Perhaps the new digital ethic is simple:
Share only what you would be proud to defend as true, fair, and necessary.
Everything else can stop at your phone’s doorstep.
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