The quiet hum of a Canadian suburban evening is often punctuated by the soft glow of a smartphone screen. A resident, let’s call him Mark, scrolls through his social media feed, pausing on a headline from what appears to be his local news outlet. It reads, “City Council Votes to Hide Crime Statistics to Protect Newcomers.” His heart rate quickens. He feels a surge of anger, a sense of betrayal by his community leaders. He shares the article to his neighborhood group, igniting a firestorm of comments, half of which are equally enraged, the other half calling the story fake.…

It starts with a school lunch hall, but it becomes something much bigger. When children in Northern Ireland returned to class after the holidays, parents were already talking about more than homework and uniforms. Online posts had started to circulate, claiming that school canteens were serving halal chicken as some kind of forced change. The Education Authority, which runs school meals across the region, suddenly found itself at the center of an unexpected storm. In response, it issued a public statement saying it needed to correct what it called “misinformation” and “inaccurate claims” that had been moving through social media…