Fake news sharing in 2016 concentrated among elderly white male right-wing Facebook users

Evidence

Lazer’s investigation found that a majority of the content came from the far right and was pro-Trump. Less than 5 per cent of people on the left (or centre) shared any fake news at all, whereas that number was about four times higher (20 per cent) for people on the extreme right. In fact, a growing number of studies have now all converged on the finding that – at least during the 2016 presidential election – fake news formed a relatively small (0.15 per cent to 6 per cent) part of people’s overall media diet and was much more likely to be shared by older, predominantly white, male, and conservative Trump supporters who were politically active on social media, especially Facebook. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 524

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the super-spreader finding — connects to earlier book chapters on how misinformation propagates through small concentrated networks rather than evenly. — connects to: Social platforms are culpable for fake news but culpability is not remediation — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 577; Web 2.0’s democratic features powered right-wing disinformation campaigns — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 486

Broader Connections

• Web 2.0’s democratic features powered right-wing disinformation campaigns #expands (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 486
• Social platforms are culpable for fake news but culpability is not remediation #expands (0.70) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 577