Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election
The dynamics and influence of fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election remains to be clarified. Here, we use a dataset of 171 million tweets in the five months preceding the election day to identify 30 million tweets, from 2.2 million users, which contain a link to news outlets....
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Research
2019
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797097972642611200 |
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| author | Bovet, A Makse, HA |
| author_facet | Bovet, A Makse, HA |
| author_sort | Bovet, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The dynamics and influence of fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election
remains to be clarified. Here, we use a dataset of 171 million tweets in the five months
preceding the election day to identify 30 million tweets, from 2.2 million users, which contain
a link to news outlets. Based on a classification of news outlets curated by www.opensources.
co, we find that 25% of these tweets spread either fake or extremely biased news. We
characterize the networks of information flow to find the most influential spreaders of fake
and traditional news and use causal modeling to uncover how fake news influenced the
presidential election. We find that, while top influencers spreading traditional center and left
leaning news largely influence the activity of Clinton supporters, this causality is reversed for
the fake news: the activity of Trump supporters influences the dynamics of the top fake news
spreaders. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:02:58Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:d8f37949-cafb-45bd-bf0f-ced562d8b2e5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:02:58Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Nature Research |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:d8f37949-cafb-45bd-bf0f-ced562d8b2e52022-03-27T08:52:27ZInfluence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential electionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d8f37949-cafb-45bd-bf0f-ced562d8b2e5statistical physicscomplex networkscommunicationpoliticsEnglishSymplectic ElementsNature Research2019Bovet, AMakse, HAThe dynamics and influence of fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election remains to be clarified. Here, we use a dataset of 171 million tweets in the five months preceding the election day to identify 30 million tweets, from 2.2 million users, which contain a link to news outlets. Based on a classification of news outlets curated by www.opensources. co, we find that 25% of these tweets spread either fake or extremely biased news. We characterize the networks of information flow to find the most influential spreaders of fake and traditional news and use causal modeling to uncover how fake news influenced the presidential election. We find that, while top influencers spreading traditional center and left leaning news largely influence the activity of Clinton supporters, this causality is reversed for the fake news: the activity of Trump supporters influences the dynamics of the top fake news spreaders. |
| spellingShingle | statistical physics complex networks communication politics Bovet, A Makse, HA Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title | Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title_full | Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title_fullStr | Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title_full_unstemmed | Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title_short | Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election |
| title_sort | influence of fake news in twitter during the 2016 us presidential election |
| topic | statistical physics complex networks communication politics |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT boveta influenceoffakenewsintwitterduringthe2016uspresidentialelection AT makseha influenceoffakenewsintwitterduringthe2016uspresidentialelection |