Facebook Reigns Supreme In Terms Of Providing Users With Fake Information As Per This Study

A new study is shedding light on misinformation spread across social media and which apps are doing a worse job than others to curb the matter.

It’s Facebook that reigns supreme in this regard, where users consume more fake data from this app than all leading social media platforms.

Are we surprised or should we be surprised? Well, we don’t think so because we know that when it was time for the US elections, the among of misinformation across this app was greater than others. And yes, it beat out Twitter too.

The research was published at the start of this month and it found how alarming figures of individuals were consuming fake data about the American elections that arose in 2020. The most concern had to do with votes not achieving proper counts.

They even found out how the biggest factor that made other individuals suspicious had to do with the amount of fake news being taken in and not the actual means by which votes were getting cast.

A lot of the issues arose because such sites had algorithms that were curated to keep people scrolling and staying engaged for so long. Therefore, it’s likely to continue serving the same types of content and ensure it's more difficult to climb out of these disinformation phases once you get into it.

There was even a lot of bias being promoted across the app and it’s shocking, to say the least. The algorithms continue to churn out fake data and if you’re not mindful, it’s like a hole that keeps on sucking Facebook users into it.

But the study also found that those who got the US election news by going to websites directly were less liable to attain fake news. These are the ones that knew the election unfolded in this manner because of the right reasons and not because of fake rumors that stated that votes weren’t counted.

Even though a lot of these speculations failed to have the support of facts, they continued to spread like wildfire on the platform. And it’s not shocking how social media apps like Facebook keep on promoting such behavior.

They have long been dubbed as drivers for disinformation. But the tricky part has to do with measuring how taking in fake news could alter a user’s understanding of the real world.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World