A few take-home points on this big study on Twitter and fake news 1. It doesn't mean the majority, or even a sizable portion of the content you read on Twitter is fakehttps://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/8/17085928/fake-news-study-mit-science …
-
Show this thread
-
2. All it's finding is that the false news stories seem to have this extra momentum, this extra energy pulling them farther and deeper into the twitter ecosystem
1 reply 1 retweet 5 likesShow this thread -
3. The reason for that *probably* has less to do with twitter as a platform and more to do with the human mind. Our minds favors the novel, surprising, and emotional.
2 replies 2 retweets 8 likesShow this thread -
4. That said, this isn't the final word on if fake news actually travels faster on twitter than real news. The researchers say this. It's really hard to say what the fake news stories in this study should be compared to.
1 reply 1 retweet 4 likesShow this thread -
Because there's so much true news. It's very very hard to perfectly conclude that fake news is going to spread faster and farther than true. Cause it's just hard to compare to all the type of true news out there.
1 reply 1 retweet 5 likesShow this thread -
5. Another interesting tidbit: Bots don't favor true news or false news. In sum, they promote both at equal rates.
1 reply 2 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
And finally, 6) I'm left wondering if Twitter can really solve this problem. Fake news is so pernicious because it so perfectly hits our biases. And if twitter wants users to engage and share information ... people are going to end up sharing this stuff, regardless of intent
2 replies 1 retweet 6 likesShow this thread
Anyway. Time for another coffee.
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

