False Information Cascade Through Social Media
After the terror attacks on Paris last Friday, social media was flooded by misinformation- from photoshopped pictures of a man in a turban to make it look like he was wearing a suicide vest and holding a Quran to rumors that Uber was capitalizing on the tragedy by increasing rates in Paris that night. This article explores the question of why rumors and false information spreads so rapidly after tragedies, since this is not a unique phenomenon to the Paris attacks. Similar situations occur after other large-scale tragedies, such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Sandy Hook, etc.
The explanation for why people share false information so rapidly on social media can be explained by information cascades, where people copy others’ behavior despite their own beliefs or knowledge to the contrary, a topic that we discussed in class. The idea that if a story or post gets a lot of ‘likes’ or ‘shares’, it must be true is much simpler than researching and verifying everything you see on social media yourself. People are generally also motivated by getting page views or likes, or social approval- to many sites, it is often more important to be first to post a story than to be right.
Another factor that encourages such information cascades is the idea of confirmation bias- sometimes rumors are spread because we want them to be true based on our preconceived notions. For example, Uber’s reputation is already suffering especially in European countries, so it is easy to believe that they would take advantage of a tragedy to make a larger profit.
Although such information cascades can range from innocent to harmful to people well-beings, they can also have a positive impact. For example, after the Paris attacks, #PorteOuverte was used to match people who were seeking shelter with those who were offering it.
This article helps motivate the idea of information cascades we learned in class, and why in the real world it can have real benefits and drawbacks, especially when connected to social media. If people believe that just because a story was shared thousands of times it must be true, this can cause widespread panic, or ruin an innocent person’s life. However, in the case where the story or information is positive and helps others, information cascades allow this benefit to spread rapidly throughout the world through social media.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/19/paris-and-the-trail-of-social-media-misinformation/