Fake News Dominated Social Media In Months Leading Up To The Election
We all saw the stupid memes and articles that were outright lies, but it seemed as though no matter what we did to counter them, they just flooded Facebook and Twitter. These articles were the real "fake news" of the election.
It turns out they dominated social media as well, according to a new report from Buzzfeed.
Of the 20 top-performing false election stories identified in the analysis, all but three were overtly pro-Donald Trump or anti-Hillary Clinton. Two of the biggest false hits were a story claiming Clinton sold weapons to ISIS and a hoax claiming the pope endorsed Trump. The only viral false stories during the final three months that were arguably against Trump’s interests were a false quote from Mike Pence about Michelle Obama, a false report that Ireland was accepting American “refugees” fleeing Trump, and a hoax claiming RuPaul said he was groped by Trump.