Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media
In recent years, there has been widespread concern that misinformation on social media is damaging societies and democratic institutions. In response, social media platforms have announced actions to limit the spread of false content. We measure trends in the diffusion of content from 569 fake news...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2019-05-01
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| Series: | Research & Politics |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168019848554 |
| _version_ | 1819051191569481728 |
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| author | Hunt Allcott Matthew Gentzkow Chuan Yu |
| author_facet | Hunt Allcott Matthew Gentzkow Chuan Yu |
| author_sort | Hunt Allcott |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In recent years, there has been widespread concern that misinformation on social media is damaging societies and democratic institutions. In response, social media platforms have announced actions to limit the spread of false content. We measure trends in the diffusion of content from 569 fake news websites and 9540 fake news stories on Facebook and Twitter between January 2015 and July 2018. User interactions with false content rose steadily on both Facebook and Twitter through the end of 2016. Since then, however, interactions with false content have fallen sharply on Facebook while continuing to rise on Twitter, with the ratio of Facebook engagements to Twitter shares decreasing by 60%. In comparison, interactions with other news, business, or culture sites have followed similar trends on both platforms. Our results suggest that the relative magnitude of the misinformation problem on Facebook has declined since its peak. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T12:00:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c5f255d8eb004618aaedcd0c84c2f731 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-1680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T12:00:01Z |
| publishDate | 2019-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Research & Politics |
| spelling | doaj.art-c5f255d8eb004618aaedcd0c84c2f7312022-12-21T19:04:50ZengSAGE PublishingResearch & Politics2053-16802019-05-01610.1177/2053168019848554Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social mediaHunt Allcott0Matthew Gentzkow1Chuan Yu2New York University, Microsoft Research, and NBER, USAStanford University and NBER, USAStanford University, USAIn recent years, there has been widespread concern that misinformation on social media is damaging societies and democratic institutions. In response, social media platforms have announced actions to limit the spread of false content. We measure trends in the diffusion of content from 569 fake news websites and 9540 fake news stories on Facebook and Twitter between January 2015 and July 2018. User interactions with false content rose steadily on both Facebook and Twitter through the end of 2016. Since then, however, interactions with false content have fallen sharply on Facebook while continuing to rise on Twitter, with the ratio of Facebook engagements to Twitter shares decreasing by 60%. In comparison, interactions with other news, business, or culture sites have followed similar trends on both platforms. Our results suggest that the relative magnitude of the misinformation problem on Facebook has declined since its peak.https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168019848554 |
| spellingShingle | Hunt Allcott Matthew Gentzkow Chuan Yu Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media Research & Politics |
| title | Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| title_full | Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| title_fullStr | Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| title_short | Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| title_sort | trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168019848554 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT huntallcott trendsinthediffusionofmisinformationonsocialmedia AT matthewgentzkow trendsinthediffusionofmisinformationonsocialmedia AT chuanyu trendsinthediffusionofmisinformationonsocialmedia |