False news stories spread across Twitter faster than the truth, but only a small fraction of the population is actually vulnerable to the dangerously polarizing information, new research has found.
Combatting false news stories, such as the outlandish claim that Hillary Clinton ran a child-sex ring through pizza restaurants, was a major concern leading up to the 2016 U.S. election.
Those sorts of falsehoods were the focus of , which studied about 126,000 rumours spread across Twitter between 2006 and 2017.
In all, about three million users helped spread unsubstantiated gossip.
Researchers found that the rumours spread faster than true stories. And, contrary to popular belief, online 鈥渂ots鈥� designed to spread fake information did so at about the same rate as humans 鈥� a finding that suggests real people are actually fuelling the trend.
The reason, researchers say, is because false news stories are often more 鈥渘ovel,鈥� or surprising and unbelievable, than the truth. Researchers say users are prone to share novel information because, ironically, it makes them seem more 鈥渋n the know鈥� than their friends.
The findings might sound bleak, but they鈥檙e actually encouraging, says Elizabeth Dubois, an assistant professor with the University of Ottawa who helped guide the project.
Only a small fraction of online users 鈥� about 8 per cent 鈥� are susceptible to these sorts of online echo chambers.
鈥淚f you are consuming enough different media, you are less likely to get stuck in that bubble. You end up having a lot of different information coming at you, and so this risk of polarization or of people being completely left out of the political system is a little bit minimized,鈥� Dubois told CTV鈥檚 Power Play on Wednesday.
In fact, most people have a relatively healthy media diet that includes multiple sources. That way, Dubois says, readers can think more critically about what they鈥檙e reading.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e got radio in the morning on their commute, they鈥檝e got a newspaper they check in with during the day, they鈥檝e got evening news they watch 鈥� plus they have Twitter and Reddit and Facebook,鈥� she said.
It鈥檚 important to note that the data comes from a U.K. sample. However, Dubois says that researchers believe Canadians are 鈥渕ore or less鈥� comparable to Brits in terms of our media habits.
Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to weed out fast-spreading falsehoods from their platforms.
But fears that fake news stories will seep into mass consciousness and upend political discourse are 鈥渁 little overblown,鈥� Dubois said, particularly in an age where people receiveinformation from a multitude of platforms.
鈥淭he people who are pushing it forward are relatively limited in number, and the people who are at risk of not recognizing that it is fake, even if they鈥檙e clicking on it, there鈥檚 very few of them,鈥� she said.
鈥淢ost people are going and fact-checking. Most people are using all the different channels of communication we鈥檝e got to make sure they actually know what鈥檚 trustworthy and what isn鈥檛.鈥�
Another good sign, Dubois says, is that political Twitter users tend to follow individuals who don鈥檛 agree with their worldview.
鈥淢ost political Twitter users actually find there鈥檚 a lot of value in following people who have different opinions from them. Even if they don鈥檛 retweet them or interact with them, they watch and they listen and they try to see what the other side is saying."
