osewalrus

This is a really good article that pulls together rather important research.

https://medium.com/s/reasonable-doubt/why-fears-of-fake-news-are-overhyped-2ed9ca0a52c9

Key points:

1. Most studies on the reach of fake news in 2016 simply measured reach without context or consideration. i.e., your crazy old uncle forwarding to everyone his latest fake news headline may have reached his 300+ friends, but the only ones he convinced were the people already convinced. There is no evidence that fake news altered election outcomes, even in statistically close states.

2. More importantly, every single study on fake news dissemination in 2018 found that even by the most generous metrics to the spread of fake news, fake news had massively declined in terms of reach. Preliminary research indicates this is largely due to efforts by Facebook to modify its behavior post-2016.

3. While the ability of fake news to alter actual results is speculative, there are real concerns about the spill over effects. In particular, fake news appears to contribute to hyper-partisan behavior and dehumanization of political opponents by the most politically active.

4. Fact checking and other methods of countering fake news *do* help, but are not sufficient for the core of hyper-partisans who are the largest consumers of fake news.