It's a Start

Image courtesy of Michael P. Ramirez

A headline published yesterday in The Guardian reads as follows:

Facebook staff mount secret push to tackle fake news

It's a start! Here is one of the more telling lines from the article:

"One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned news feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but it disproportionately impacted rightwing news sites."

The Guardian article also referenced a Pew Research Center study that revealed that 62% of Americans get all or some of their news from social media.

Finally, the article referenced an analysis published by BuzzFeed that revealed that 38% of all posts published on three hyperpartisan right-wing Facebook pages "were either a mixture of true and false or mostly false, compared to 19% of posts from three hyperpartisan left-wing pages."

My takeaway:

Social Media + Disinformation + Confirmation Bias = President Trump

☕︎

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Note: Image and additional web links added in 2025.

Relevant Reading

Political Polarization Triggers Conservatives’ Misinformation Spread to Attain Ingroup Dominance

Journal of Marketing

16 Jun 2024・Vol 89, Issue 1

From the abstract:

"Using a multi-method approach, the authors conduct six studies, including analyses of statements by public figures and speeches by U.S. presidents, as well as controlled experiments. The results indicate that in polarized situations, conservatives’ need for in-group dominance is elevated, so they convey more misinformation than liberals. In less polarized situations, conservatives’ need for in-group dominance is tempered, reducing their misinformation conveyance."

Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook

Science Advances

20 Jul 2022・Vol 8, Issue 29

While sharing false information on Facebook during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign was relatively "rare," conservatives were much more likely to share false information than liberals or moderates.

From the abstract:

"Conservatives were more likely to share articles from fake news domains, which in 2016 were largely pro-Trump in orientation, than liberals or moderates. We also find a strong age effect, which persists after controlling for partisanship and ideology. On average, users over 65 shared nearly seven times as many articles from fake news domains as the youngest age group."

Conservatives’ susceptibility to political misperceptions

Science Advances

2 Jun 2021・Vol 7, Issue 23

From the abstract:

"We generated a unique longitudinal dataset combining social media engagement data and a 12-wave panel study of Americans’ political knowledge about high-profile news over six months. Results confirm that conservatives have lower sensitivity than liberals, performing worse at distinguishing truths and falsehoods. This is partially explained by the fact that the most widely shared falsehoods tend to promote conservative positions, while corresponding truths typically favor liberals. The problem is exacerbated by liberals’ tendency to experience bigger improvements in sensitivity than conservatives as the proportion of partisan news increases."

Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Science

25 Jan 2019・Vol 363, Issue 6425

From the abstract:

"The spread of fake news on social media became a public concern in the United States after the 2016 presidential election. We examined exposure to and sharing of fake news by registered voters on Twitter and found that engagement with fake news sources was extremely concentrated. Only 1% of individuals accounted for 80% of fake news source exposures, and 0.1% accounted for nearly 80% of fake news sources shared. Individuals most likely to engage with fake news sources were conservative leaning, older, and highly engaged with political news."