Viral fake news in 2016 favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton

Evidence

The same year, economists Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow were the first to try to quantify the effect of fake news on the 2016 US presidential election. The duo put some facts together to paint a persuasive picture of why we might be concerned about the role of fake news during major elections. For example, they stated that a majority of US adults (62 per cent) now get their news from social media. This is potentially problematic because the spread of fake news can outpace mainstream news on platforms such as Facebook; people often report that they believe such fake news stories when exposed to them; and the most viral fake news stories favoured Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 514

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Most 2016 election fake news stories favored Trump over Clinton by a wide margin — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 516

Broader Connections

• Most 2016 election fake news stories favored Trump over Clinton by a wide margin #corroborates (1.00) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 516