The Spread of Fake News through Facebook and Diffusion
Source: https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/facebook-banned-accounts
This article talks about the way that things like fake news can be spread on social media sites, like Facebook. Currently on Facebook, there are an estimated 5% of users that are considered to be fake accounts. However, this number is actually thought to be around 20%. These fake accounts are being used to spread political misinformation on Facebook. Many accounts would spread fake news articles and stories that would paint politicians in a negative light, especially around the time of crucial elections. For example, during the 2016 election, fake accounts would spread stories about politicians to try to get the public to turn against them and vote for the other candidate.
The way that fake news is spread on platforms like Facebook has a lot to do with the way that networks are structured. These fake accounts target misinformation at people who may believe in stories like this already. The fake accounts start with an audience that they believe will be receptive to this fake news. Now, there are multiple real people who have seen these fake stories and are spreading them all over Facebook or recommending them to their friends. This is then seen by their Facebook friends, who are now more receptive to this information now that someone they know has shared the story. This is where the concept of diffusion comes in. One of the ways that networks play a role in helping people make decisions or form opinions is through diffusion. In particular, according to the textbook, “as individuals make decisions based on the choices of their neighbors, a particular pattern of behavior can begin to spread across the links of the network.” We can see that, through diffusion, people’s opinions are heavily influenced by those of the people they know. They are more willing to switch their opinions or believe something completely untrue if their Facebook friends are sharing that opinion. The textbook mentions that in a network model, the benefits of changing to a new behavior increase for a person as more and more of their neighbors adopt this. In the case of Facebook, people mostly have Facebook friends who live in the same area as them, and who potentially have the same economic status as them or a similar background. When people start to see their Facebook friends share fake new stories, they are more influenced to believe these stories. Especially in the case of politics, these stories try to promote certain candidates and their policies. If people see their Facebook friends sharing these stories, they might start to believe that the candidate’s polices are better for them and decide to vote for the candidate.