Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Abe Lincoln Said So


Over the past two decades, there has been a notable increase in the use of social media platforms as a space to express opinions and engage with the public. This trend has also led to increased competition among individuals, organizations, and even governments in shaping public opinion. In my opinion, one of the most striking examples of this was the 2016 election. Users on social media platforms can share content without any substantial filtering or fact-checking by a third party. This information can reach more individuals than the major news stations. According to available data, certain experts speculate that the outcome of the 2016 election was influenced by the proliferation of "fake news" articles.

According to an article published in 2017 by the Journal of Economic Perspectives, research shows that:

  1. 62% of adults in the United States obtain their news from social media.
  2. On Facebook, the fake news stories that were most popular received more shares than the most popular mainstream news stories.
  3. A significant number of individuals who come across fabricated news articles admit to accepting them as true.

The figure above shows that the majority of access to these fake news sites was through links published or shared on social media. Based on this data, one could conclude that most of the news articles shared on social media are of the "fake news" variety.


Following the 2016 election, Facebook posts containing news articles were accompanied by a fact-checking disclaimer from Snopes. This service also warned users that the accuracy of the information they were about to share has been disputed by "independent fact-checkers". The goal of this partnership was to assist in limiting the dissemination of false information on the website. However, Snopes cut ties with Facebook in 2019. Facebook continues to collaborate with more than 30 organizations to verify the accuracy of information. 

I believe that social media services have a certain level of responsibility, but it's a delicate balance between freedom of speech and censorship. Despite being cautioned about potential misinformation, users can still choose to share, engage with, or even trust a post or news article. At the end of the day, it's the responsibility of the individual user to decide how they engage with the information they encounter on social media.

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