Before Facebook Was The Coffee House

http://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/before-facebook-was-the-coffee-house/
Date Written:  2016-12-01
Publisher:  Pandaemonium - Kenan Malik's Blog
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20174

Kenan Malik writes about the issue of fake news.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Today it's Facebook. 350 years ago it was the coffee house. In the late seventeenth century, as Markman Ellis tells in his book on the cultural history of the coffee house, there was panic in British royal circles that these newly-established drinking salons had become forums for political dissent, rebellious attitudes and the spreading of untruths. In June 1672, Charles II issued a proclamation 'to restrain the Spreading of False News, and Licentious Talking of Matters of State and Government.' 'Bold and Licentious Discourses', it continued, had grown to the extent that