The geography of corporate fake news
Although a rich academic literature examines the use of fake news by foreign actors for political manipulation, there is limited research on potential foreign intervention in capital markets. To address this gap, we construct a comprehensive database of (negative) fake news regarding U.S. firms by s...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178933 |
| _version_ | 1826120951874453504 |
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| author | Darendeli, Alper Sun, Aixin Tay, Wee Peng |
| author2 | Nanyang Business School |
| author_facet | Nanyang Business School Darendeli, Alper Sun, Aixin Tay, Wee Peng |
| author_sort | Darendeli, Alper |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Although a rich academic literature examines the use of fake news by foreign actors for political manipulation, there is limited research on potential foreign intervention in capital markets. To address this gap, we construct a comprehensive database of (negative) fake news regarding U.S. firms by scraping prominent fact-checking sites. We identify the accounts that spread the news on Twitter (now X) and use machine-learning techniques to infer the geographic locations of these fake news spreaders. Our analysis reveals that corporate fake news is more likely than corporate non-fake news to be spread by foreign accounts. At the country level, corporate fake news is more likely to originate from African and Middle Eastern countries and tends to increase during periods of high geopolitical tension. At the firm level, firms operating in uncertain information environments and strategic industries are more likely to be targeted by foreign accounts. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence of foreign-originating misinformation in capital markets and thus have important policy implications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:24:50Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178933 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T05:24:50Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1789332024-07-11T15:35:45Z The geography of corporate fake news Darendeli, Alper Sun, Aixin Tay, Wee Peng Nanyang Business School School of Computer Science and Engineering School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Business and Management Disinformation Social media Although a rich academic literature examines the use of fake news by foreign actors for political manipulation, there is limited research on potential foreign intervention in capital markets. To address this gap, we construct a comprehensive database of (negative) fake news regarding U.S. firms by scraping prominent fact-checking sites. We identify the accounts that spread the news on Twitter (now X) and use machine-learning techniques to infer the geographic locations of these fake news spreaders. Our analysis reveals that corporate fake news is more likely than corporate non-fake news to be spread by foreign accounts. At the country level, corporate fake news is more likely to originate from African and Middle Eastern countries and tends to increase during periods of high geopolitical tension. At the firm level, firms operating in uncertain information environments and strategic industries are more likely to be targeted by foreign accounts. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence of foreign-originating misinformation in capital markets and thus have important policy implications. Nanyang Technological University Published version Initials of the authors who received each award: AD, SA, WPT Grant number: NTU-ACE2019-02. The full name of the funder: Nanyang Technological University Accelerating Creativity and Excellence Funding. URL of funder website: https://www.ntu.edu.sg/research/research-careers/ accelerating-creativity-and-excellence-(ace). The funder did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 2024-07-10T06:36:30Z 2024-07-10T06:36:30Z 2024 Journal Article Darendeli, A., Sun, A. & Tay, W. P. (2024). The geography of corporate fake news. PloS One, 19(4), e0301364-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301364 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178933 10.1371/journal.pone.0301364 38630681 2-s2.0-85190850262 4 19 e0301364 en NTU-ACE2019-02 PloS One © 2024 Darendeli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Business and Management Disinformation Social media Darendeli, Alper Sun, Aixin Tay, Wee Peng The geography of corporate fake news |
| title | The geography of corporate fake news |
| title_full | The geography of corporate fake news |
| title_fullStr | The geography of corporate fake news |
| title_full_unstemmed | The geography of corporate fake news |
| title_short | The geography of corporate fake news |
| title_sort | geography of corporate fake news |
| topic | Business and Management Disinformation Social media |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178933 |
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