In his weekly column "Max's Column" for TBmagazine, Maxim Behar comments on the insurgence of fake news on social media and the responsibility of the consumer to educate and inform themselves, rather than putting blame on the platforms.

"In a year or two all social media is going to shut down, they’re just all full of nonsense," exclaimed a solid gentleman on a brandy or two last night. A whole mass of intellectuals around him, however, approvingly nodded.

So – now Facebook is to blame because its full of fake news.  First – from the beginning days, when it was created, sometime in February 2004, Facebook has grown to be the freest media to date, all of this simply because everyone and anyone owns that medium and can write whatever they want on it.

The same thing happened to all the other social media that - by the way - I never called "networks", because the word itself imposes restrictions that practically do not exist.

And of course, that hides risks.

But we all know that it is not freedom that is to blame, but our inability to use it. Social media should not be criticized, nor those who pour nonsense into them, but rather us if we can't cope. I have always said – hypothetically you can buy a journalist, media or publisher, but quite specifically you cannot buy any social media, never mind Facebook.

And let's not scapegoat Facebook or the other media, but rather educate oneself on what and how to read and write. Not only will this be easier and more feasible, but it will also be more honourable.