As misinformation spreads unchecked across social media, the debate around asylum seekers and the use of Cameron Barracks in Inverness reveals how political opportunism and distorted narratives can undermine public trust — and why transparency must now take centre stage, says Brian Wilson.

For those who rely on ill-named social media, truth has become the cheapest commodity. Fact-checking does not exist and any malign agent can spread whatever falsehoods serve his or her cause.

I have never quite understood why those who facilitate this activity were allowed to get away with defining themselves as “platforms” rather than publishers, which is what they are. But that horse has long since bolted so we must live with a world in which misinformation and disinformation flourish.

There is no arena in which this is more pernicious than the debate, if that is not too strong a word, around race, asylum seekers and all that stuff, with a cast of seriously bad people poised over their keyboards ready to exploit any tragedy or event which has the potential for inciting division.

So it becomes incumbent on all responsible parties to tread very warily where such potential might exist. In that context, actions surrounding the decision by the Home Office to use Cameron Barracks in Inverness to accommodate asylum seekers is worthy of examination.

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