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https://theconversation.com/some-people-who-share-fake-news-on-social-media-actually-think-theyre-helping-the-world-215623>
"Misinformation is the number one risk facing society over the next two years,
according to the World Economic Forum. With key elections due in the US, UK and
many other nations this year, an onslaught of political misinformation can be
expected.
Some of this material is distributed through paid advertising on social media,
like the AI generated “deep fake” videos of British prime minister Rishi Sunak
doing the rounds. However, we know that much of the spread of false material is
due to the actions of individual social media users.
Many people share political news online. Inevitably some of that news is false.
Fake political news is, after all, common. It’s not unusual to see it as you
scroll through your social media feeds.
One of the main ways in which fake news spreads is when people share it to
their own social networks. Some genuinely believe the story to be true and
share it by mistake. We’ve found that around 20% of people report having shared
a story they later found out was untrue.
However, like other researchers, we also find that around one in 10 people
admit sharing political information that they knew at the time was untrue.
Why would these people deliberately spread lies? Are they deliberately setting
out to do harm? Or do they perhaps think it’s acceptable to spread because it
supports ideas they hold strongly and “might as well be true”?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
