Study: Twitter users shared more 'junk news' than real stories during the 2016 election

[applegrove]

BY ALI BRELAND at the Hill

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/353000-twitter-users-shared-more-junk-news-than-real-stories-during-the-2016

"SNIP...........

During the height of the 2016 presidential race, Twitter users shared more “misinformation, polarizing and conspiratorial content” than actual news stories, an Oxford University study released Thursday says.

Researchers found that voters on Twitter shared large amounts of content linked to Russia, WikiLeaks and other “junk news sources,” with the help of bots — automated Twitter accounts, programmed to simple tasks like spread news.

The study also found that levels of misinformation on Twitter were higher on average in swing states than in uncontested states. Researchers culled the information from 22,117,221 tweets collected between Nov. 1 and Nov. 11.

The findings come as federal investigators press major technology firms, including Twitter and Facebook, for more details on how Russian actors used their platforms to potentially influence the 2016 presidential election.


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[democratisphere]

1. Propoganda machine.

Shut 'em down!

[kentuck]

2. People whose thoughts extend to only 140 characters are not intellectuals.

[doc03]

3. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said they read something

about Hillary or Obama on Facebook last year. I think Yahoo News peddled a lot of fake news too.

[Saboburns]

4. Not the people I follow

Twitter like Facebook is user controlled. Every user gets to choose exactly what content they see.

Anyone calling it propaganda, or to be shut down does not understand how it works.

[joshcryer]

5. I learned in 2011 that Twitter was more than often a lie machine.

More than it was a truth machine.