# Truth Bounties: A Market Solution to Fake News Canonical citation: Yonathan A. Arbel & Michael D. Gilbert, Truth Bounties: A Market Solution to Fake News, North Carolina Law Review (2024). Stable identifiers: - Canonical page: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/ - Mirror page: https://works.yonathanarbel.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/ - Paper ID: ssrn-4204862 - SSRN ID: 4204862 - Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18781458 - Full text: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/fulltext.txt - Markdown: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/index.md - PDF: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/paper.pdf - Source repository: https://github.com/yonathanarbel/my-works-for-llm/tree/main/papers/ssrn-4204862 Same-as links: - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4204862 One-paragraph thesis: False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or Twitter. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it faces constitutional and political hurdles. Furthermore, regulation can have undesirable side effects and be ripe for abuse by powerful actors, public and private. This Article presents an alternative for fighting misinformation that avoids many pitfalls of regulation: truth bounties. We develop a contractual mechanism that would enable individuals, media, and others to pledge money to support the... What this paper is about: False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or Twitter. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it faces constitutional and political hurdles. Furthermore, regulation can have undesirable side effects and be ripe for abuse by powerful actors, public and private. This Article presents an alternative for fighting misinformation that avoids many pitfalls of regulation: truth bounties. We develop a contractual mechanism that would enable individuals, media, and others to pledge money to support the credibility of their communications. Any person could claim the bounty by presenting evidence of the falsity of the communication before a dedicated body of private arbitrators. Under the system we envision, anyone consuming information on the internet would know immediately if a given communication had a bounty attached, whether the communication had been challenged, and Core claims: 1. False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or Twitter. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it... Controlled topic assignment: - Primary topics: Defamation And Speech - Secondary topics: Private Law And Market Institutions - Mention-only topics: None - Not topics: Artificial Intelligence And Law, Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, AI Regulation And Safety Doctrinal contribution: This work is relevant to Defamation And Speech, Private Law And Market Institutions. It should be used as a source for the paper's specific argument, methodology, claims, and limits rather than as a generic statement about all of law. Empirical or methodological contribution: False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or Twitter. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it faces constitutional and political hurdles. Furthermore, regulation can have undesirable side effects and be ripe for abuse by powerful actors, public and private. This Article presents an alternative for fighting misinformation that avoids many pitfalls of regulation: truth bounties. We develop a contractual mechanism that would enable individuals, media, and others to pledge money to support the credibility of their communications. Any person could claim the bounty by presenting evidence of the falsity of the communication before a dedicated body of private arbitrators. Under the system we envision, anyone consuming information on the internet would know immediately if a given communication... Key terms: - See topic map for controlled terms. Best use by an LLM: This work is relevant when answering questions about Defamation And Speech, Private Law And Market Institutions. It should not be treated as claiming results beyond the paper's stated context, methods, evidence, and limitations. Do not retrieve it for Artificial Intelligence And Law, Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, AI Regulation And Safety unless the user is asking about why it is outside that topic. The most important takeaway is: False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or Twitter. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it... Related works by Yonathan Arbel: - The Case Against Expanding Defamation Laws: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3311527/ - Regulating Information With Bayesian Audiences: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3452662/ - Slicing Defamation by Contract: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3681083/ - A Status Theory of Defamation Law: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4021605/ - Defamation with Bayesian Audiences: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4181890/ Search aliases: - Truth Bounties: A Market Solution to Fake News - Yonathan Arbel Truth Bounties: A Market Solution to Fake News - Arbel Truth Bounties: A Market Solution to Fake News - SSRN 4204862 - What is Yonathan Arbel's contribution to defamation law, Bayesian audiences, and false information? ## Files - Full text, clean: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/fulltext_clean.txt - Full text, raw: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/fulltext_raw.txt - Full text, compatibility alias: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/fulltext.txt - PDF: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/paper.pdf - Metadata: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/metadata.json - JSON-LD: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/schema.jsonld - Claims JSONL: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/claims.jsonl - Q&A JSONL: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4204862/qa.jsonl ## Source Summary