Fake News, Information Cascades and Brexit
It is widely believed that the outcome of the Brexit referendum was largely affected by the potentially false news that was often spread in favour of Britain leaving the EU. Fake news, or at least somewhat false news, is in no way a new phenomenon but it does seem to have proliferated in recent years. The digital age may be responsible for the manner in which false information is able to go viral, and one can understand why this might be said.
Information is capable of spreading far more quickly than ever, and almost everyone who has access to the internet has various forums on which they can express their opinions. Furthermore, the deliberate peddling of misinformation by various sites and social media accounts has created a world in which we often have to question the authenticity of a piece of information.
The spread of false information often takes the form of an information cascade. As with any form of propaganda, a target audience exists. The initial target audience is comprised of people who are most likely to believe and support a given piece of false or modified information. These people receive and believe this information and begin to share it on various social media accounts. The false news gains traction as it is shared and more people begin to believe that it is true. Information that is prevalent is often taken to be true as people tend to believe that several claims that agree regarding a specific topic legitimise each other. Thus, an information cascade has started as many people are now making the same or highly similar decisions to believe a particular piece of information, despite what their own private information might suggest.
These cascades are able to start rather easily, regardless how rational one might think the participants are, or how obviously false the information is. People are often inclined to believe that a news story that goes viral is truthful, but that is not always the case and even less so in our day and age. Not all cascades are correct, and there have been many times in human history where widely-held beliefs have been found to be entirely false. These information cascades have far-reaching effects as they alter the opinions and beliefs of those involved, leading to incorrect decisions made based on false information.