Information Cascades Through The Number Of Retweets
It’s interesting to see technology and information cascades as a benefit in forms of education and learning, but also as an enabler of the proliferation of fake news and rapid spread of information across social media platforms. No matter if the information is accurate or fake, information spreads like there’s no tomorrow in a way that real and fake news almost become indistinguishable. By the power of information cascades, fake news can and has been spreading just as fast as factual information.
“New Study Explains Why Fake News is Perceived as Real on Twitter” examines the nature of fake news and how Twitter as a social media platform has been enabling the spread of fake news. The article relates to the idea of information cascades discussed in class and in the textbook: you’re more likely to believe in a tweet if it has many retweets. Essentially, the number of retweets act as a “normative cue” for people to both trust the information and to share it, leading to further spread of information. No matter what the title of the tweet, or how innately believable the content is, a tweet becomes higher in believability if it has a high number of retweets.
This idea isn’t much of a surprise. Since the number of retweets means that this number of people reviewed this tweet and probably believes in it. Therefore, each new user encountering the tweet is reassured because of its popularity. This effect is amplified if the reassurance comes from friends. If all my friends are sharing the same story, there is more reason for me to believe in its validity. I do not need to dig into its content or question its validity because I can infer from my friends’ choices. Essentially, this exemplifies an information cascade in which someone observes the behavior of others and engages in the same regardless of their own knowledge of the information.
The article also gives examples of the spread of fake news virally, such as during the few months before presidential elections. During election campaigns, most of the misleading fake stories shared on Facebook saw more engagement than the leading content from more legit digital outlets. Some people even blamed Facebook and other social media platform for President Donald Trump’s win, stating that “its lucrative advertising model enabled nefarious actors to sway popular political opinion”.
Whether it is by Twitter, or other forms of social media, the rapid spread of information in forms of information cascades is inevitable. The article challenges citizens to use their critical thinking skills to evaluate information themselves instead of purely trusting the “shares” and approvals of others.