Executive Summary

The spread of fake news has become one of the central threats to democratic societies and public trust.

The dominant response has been technical and regulatory:

→ more fact-checking → more verification → more automated moderation

While necessary, these measures address only part of the problem.

Classical information systems operate with a reduced concept of truth:

• facts are either true or false
• statements are evaluated primarily by formal verifiability

Human communication, however, does not function on facts alone. Meaning, emotion, context, and experience play a decisive role.

When systems recognize only machine-verifiable truth, two effects occur:

• emotionally charged meaning is displaced into informal channels
• distrust toward “official” truths increases

This environment is fertile ground for fake news.

Fake news are not primarily false facts.

They are statements in which emotional meaning is presented as objective truth, while the factual component is hidden, distorted, or absent.

The core issue is opacity, not emotionality.

Complex information distinguishes between two components of every statement:

• a real component: verifiable facts
• an imaginary component: meaning, interpretation, emotion, belief

Both components are legitimate, but they must be explicitly separated.

This separation allows:

• emotions without deception
• interpretation without falsification
• belief without masquerading as fact

By making the imaginary component visible rather than suppressing it:

• facts regain clarity
• interpretation becomes accountable
• trust becomes more stable

Truth is not relativized. It is structurally reinforced.

Information systems that ignore the imaginary component risk:

• increasing polarization
• loss of institutional credibility
• escalating cycles of misinformation

Systems based on complex information enable:

• transparent communication
• resilient public discourse
• long-term trust in information infrastructures

Fake news do not arise because humans are emotional. They arise because information systems lack a formal place for emotion and meaning.

Protecting truth requires more than verification. It requires an expanded concept of information.

These stickers are a visible sign of support for broadening the concept of information and can be affixed to IT equipment.