Information Cascades Spread Lies Easily
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/opinion/sunday/truth-lies-spread-online.html
In chapter 16, we have learned about Information Cascades. It is easy for a news to spread on internet. Everyone uses internet and it takes only a couple seconds to re-post. The other thing helps to form an information cascades is that people love to follow the crowd. A post with high re-post numbers is more likely to be shared or re-posted gain. Because of this property of internet, the formation of information cascades is usually a result from posting lies.
According to an article written by Sinan Aral, How Lies Spread Online, it states that “false stories spread significantly more than did true ones”. What do people get by spreading false stories? People do things based on how much benefit they can get. Not seeing or knowing any direct or indirect benefit, they will not spread the lies. A possible reason is that all of the people around you are spreading the news with question its authenticity, then even though you think it is false, you still will believe it is real news. The benefit is to increase the flow of information between you and the people around you. Another benefit from sharing a random news is that the content of the news “forces” you to spread it. For example, you see a fund-raising for a boy who is very ill. You may donate the money and share the post right away, since your sympathy tells you to do it. After sharing the post, you may feel good about yourself because you help someone in need. However, there is a high chance that the news is a spam. It may not be true at all, and you put everyone sees your post in risk of wasting money.
Forming information cascades without control may cause serious problems sometimes. For example, politics and government information falsely spreading may put a country at risk. Fortunately, we can also use one information cascade to crush another information cascade. By announcing a new information by an authority, a steadfast information cascades may be broken down. Sometimes, a new information cascade can overwrite the old one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/opinion/sunday/truth-lies-spread-online.html