A tiny fraction of Twitter users spread the vast majority of fake news in 2016, with conservatives and older people sharing misinformation more, according to a study out of Northeastern University.
"The researchers found the 16,442 accounts they analyzed by starting with a random pool of voter records, matching names to Twitter users and then screening out accounts that appeared to not be controlled by real people.
"Their conclusions are similar to a study earlier this month that looked at the spread of false information on Facebook. It also found that few people shared fakery, but those who did were more likely to be over 65 and conservatives.
Yochai Benkler of the Berkman Klein Center commented that the recent studies increase confidence in identifying a broader trend — two groups of researchers using different social media platforms, measuring political affiliation differently and with different panels of users came to the same conclusion. These studies should reduce misguided postelection panic about how "out-of-control technological processes had rendered us as a society incapable of telling truth from fiction."
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