2018 was the year we started to realize just how much fake news tended to hit Facebook every single day. Indeed, the top 50 fake news posts got over 22 million engagements on the social media platform. An interesting thing to note is that this is actually less than last year, although only by 7%. Facebook has had a rough year in 2018 and has attempted to improve things by hiring more staff, becoming more transparent and creating algorithms to stop the spread of fake news. When you take all of these things into account, you will realize that a 7% drop is not progress, it’s little more than a rounding error especially when you consider the fact that the number is still higher than it was in 2016.
Some of the biggest fake news stories of the year are relatively harmless. For example, the most widely shared and interacted with fake news story told the tale of a man that won the lottery and promptly used $200,000 from his winnings to purchase manure and spread it all across his ex-boss’s front lawn. This is a fake news story in the vein of old school fake news that we have all been seeing for a decade now and many of us gleefully point out the fakeness of in an attempt to seem smarter than everyone else.
However, some of the other news articles that were shared could potentially have been very damaging indeed, and probably did cause damage in one way or another. For example, a story went viral about a Muslim that demanded pork free menus, threatening that Muslims would leave the U.S. if this did not happen. This story was clearly fake but it did prompt a lot of racism and xenophobia, showing just how dangerous these things can be.
This infographic from Buzzfeed presents the top 10 fake stories and websites that garnered the most engagement on Facebook.
Featured Image: MicheleRosenthal
Some of the biggest fake news stories of the year are relatively harmless. For example, the most widely shared and interacted with fake news story told the tale of a man that won the lottery and promptly used $200,000 from his winnings to purchase manure and spread it all across his ex-boss’s front lawn. This is a fake news story in the vein of old school fake news that we have all been seeing for a decade now and many of us gleefully point out the fakeness of in an attempt to seem smarter than everyone else.
However, some of the other news articles that were shared could potentially have been very damaging indeed, and probably did cause damage in one way or another. For example, a story went viral about a Muslim that demanded pork free menus, threatening that Muslims would leave the U.S. if this did not happen. This story was clearly fake but it did prompt a lot of racism and xenophobia, showing just how dangerous these things can be.
This infographic from Buzzfeed presents the top 10 fake stories and websites that garnered the most engagement on Facebook.
Featured Image: MicheleRosenthal