Social Media and the Proliferation of Fake News

Social Media and the Proliferation of Fake News
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Social Media and the Proliferation of Fake News
In recent years, social media platforms have emerged as powerful communication platforms. Social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, have allowed millions of online users to connect and access news sources, far beyond the capability of traditional media. Social networking sites provide convenience to online consumers, which is attributable to the ability to share, comment on, and discuss the news with others, its timeliness, and reduced cost of access. However, despite this convenience, the quality of news available on social media is low compared to traditional media. With an increasing number of online users intentionally sharing false information, the phenomenon of “Fake News’ has become prevalent, breaking the authenticity balance in the news and information-sharing ecosystem.
Fake news promotes false ideas and beliefs with an intention of misguiding online news consumers. Further, sharing of fake news and misinformation is detrimental to the society by changing the way the audience interpret and react to real news, despite credible and authentic sources provided. Therefore, this begs the question, how are social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, promoting the spread of misinformation and fake news in the post-truth world? This paper delves into the impact that the growing use of social media has had on the proliferation of fake news. While social media has evolved into a powerful communication channel, the spread of fake news can bring devastating impact on individuals and the society in general.
The lack of absolute control of social media has allowed online users with malicious intent to set up account primarily aiming at spreading propaganda. With low cost associated with setting up social media accounts, online users aiming to spread propaganda, as well as malicious user accounts, such as social bots, cyborg users, and trolls, have taken control of various social media channels through content generation and interaction with other humans (Shu, Sliva, Wang, Tang & Liu, 2017). These malicious users deliberately manipulate and spread misinformation and fake news on social media to distort the nature of truth and to push a certain selfish agenda. For example, Shu et al. (2017) note that an estimated 19 million bot accounts on Twitter tweeted in favor of either Trump or Clinton a week prior to the 2016 U.S presidential election. Additionally, social bots played a major role in distorting and spreading propaganda with about “1,000 paid Russian trolls spreading fake news on Hillary Clinton” (Shu et al., 2017, p. 25). Corner (2017) notes that Britain’s Brexit vote was entangled in a battle of political propaganda in which both sides shared strategic falsehood and misinformation to shape the outcome. Partisan propaganda results in the spread of falsehoods and misinformation targeting online consumers for personal and selfish gains.
In the age social media, online users are capitalizing on sharing and promoting misinformation, fake news, and post-truths for various reasons. Facebook, for instance, has been labeled as a favorite of spreading fake news. For instance, the 2016 US presidential election was marred with numerous cases of spreading falsehoods, propaganda, and misinformation through social media to gain political mileage (Berghel, 2017). Besides political motive, social media platforms have also been used to spread fake news and post-truths which may be detrimental to the overall society. For instance, social networking sites have been used to spread lies on sensitive issues such as white supremacy, racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism (Berghel, 2017). The spread of fake news on social media is aided by the use of pseudonyms by users and claiming anonymity to conceal their sources. Additionally, online users with a malicious intent hide behind the First Amendment, thereby bypassing the need to disclose or verify their sources. Consequently, such users can post repugnant and offensive content without being held accountable for their actions. Therefore, the ease of posting content on social media has made it easy for people to post fake news and misinformation, which is largely damaging to society.
The spread of fake news necessitated by the proliferation of social media has continually posed a challenge to the journalists and researchers in search of the real news. For instance, Corner (2017) explores the works of journalist-researchers who have cited numerous challenges in regards to falsehoods on social medi...