research social media fake news

What are you looking for?

The researchers sought to understand how the reward structure of social media sites drives users to develop habits of posting misinformation on social media. (Photo/AdobeStock)

USC study reveals the key reason why fake news spreads on social media

The USC-led study of more than 2,400 Facebook users suggests that platforms — more than individual users — have a larger role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation online.

USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information.

The team’s findings, published Monday by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , upend popular misconceptions that misinformation spreads because users lack the critical thinking skills necessary for discerning truth from falsehood or because their strong political beliefs skew their judgment.

Just 15% of the most habitual news sharers in the research were responsible for spreading about 30% to 40% of the fake news.

The research team from the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences wondered: What motivates these users? As it turns out, much like any video game, social media has a rewards system that encourages users to stay on their accounts and keep posting and sharing. Users who post and share frequently, especially sensational, eye-catching information, are likely to attract attention.

“Due to the reward-based learning systems on social media, users form habits of sharing information that gets recognition from others,” the researchers wrote. “Once habits form, information sharing is automatically activated by cues on the platform without users considering critical response outcomes, such as spreading misinformation.”

Posting, sharing and engaging with others on social media can, therefore, become a habit.

“[Misinformation is] really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves.” — Wendy Wood , USC expert on habits

“Our findings show that misinformation isn’t spread through a deficit of users. It’s really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves,” said Wendy Wood , an expert on habits and USC emerita Provost Professor of psychology and business.

“The habits of social media users are a bigger driver of misinformation spread than individual attributes. We know from prior research that some people don’t process information critically, and others form opinions based on political biases, which also affects their ability to recognize false stories online,” said Gizem Ceylan, who led the study during her doctorate at USC Marshall and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale School of Management . “However, we show that the reward structure of social media platforms plays a bigger role when it comes to misinformation spread.”

In a novel approach, Ceylan and her co-authors sought to understand how the reward structure of social media sites drives users to develop habits of posting misinformation on social media.

Why fake news spreads: behind the social network

Overall, the study involved 2,476 active Facebook users ranging in age from 18 to 89 who volunteered in response to online advertising to participate. They were compensated to complete a “decision-making” survey approximately seven minutes long.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that users’ social media habits doubled and, in some cases, tripled the amount of fake news they shared. Their habits were more influential in sharing fake news than other factors, including political beliefs and lack of critical reasoning.

Frequent, habitual users forwarded six times more fake news than occasional or new users.

“This type of behavior has been rewarded in the past by algorithms that prioritize engagement when selecting which posts users see in their news feed, and by the structure and design of the sites themselves,” said second author Ian A. Anderson , a behavioral scientist and doctoral candidate at USC Dornsife. “Understanding the dynamics behind misinformation spread is important given its political, health and social consequences.”

Experimenting with different scenarios to see why fake news spreads

In the first experiment, the researchers found that habitual users of social media share both true and fake news.

In another experiment, the researchers found that habitual sharing of misinformation is part of a broader pattern of insensitivity to the information being shared. In fact, habitual users shared politically discordant news — news that challenged their political beliefs — as much as concordant news that they endorsed.

Lastly, the team tested whether social media reward structures could be devised to promote sharing of true over false information. They showed that incentives for accuracy rather than popularity (as is currently the case on social media sites) doubled the amount of accurate news that users share on social platforms.

The study’s conclusions:

• Habitual sharing of misinformation is not inevitable.
• Users could be incentivized to build sharing habits that make them more sensitive to sharing truthful content.
• Effectively reducing misinformation would require restructuring the online environments that promote and support its sharing.

These findings suggest that social media platforms can take a more active step than moderating what information is posted and instead pursue structural changes in their reward structure to limit the spread of misinformation.

About the study:  The research was supported and funded by the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology, the USC Marshall School of Business and the Yale University School of Management.

Related Articles

Exactly what opportunities does quantum computing present, anyway, the best place to see the total solar eclipse in 2024, study explores the future of at-home cancer treatment.

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Machine learning
• Social justice
• Black holes
• Classes and programs

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Architecture
• Political Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Lincoln Laboratory
• School of Architecture + Planning
• School of Engineering
• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• Sloan School of Management
• School of Science
• MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Systems scientists find clues to why false news snowballs on social media

Press contact :, media download.

*Terms of Use:

Images for download on the MIT News office website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license . You may not alter the images provided, other than to crop them to size. A credit line must be used when reproducing images; if one is not provided below, credit the images to "MIT."

Previous image Next image

The spread of misinformation on social media is a pressing societal problem that tech companies and policymakers continue to grapple with, yet those who study this issue still don’t have a deep understanding of why and how false news spreads.

To shed some light on this murky topic, researchers at MIT developed a theoretical model of a Twitter-like social network to study how news is shared and explore situations where a non-credible news item will spread more widely than the truth. Agents in the model are driven by a desire to persuade others to take on their point of view: The key assumption in the model is that people bother to share something with their followers if they think it is persuasive and likely to move others closer to their mindset. Otherwise they won’t share.

The researchers found that in such a setting, when a network is highly connected or the views of its members are sharply polarized, news that is likely to be false will spread more widely and travel deeper into the network than news with higher credibility.

This theoretical work could inform empirical studies of the relationship between news credibility and the size of its spread, which might help social media companies adapt networks to limit the spread of false information.

“We show that, even if people are rational in how they decide to share the news, this could still lead to the amplification of information with low credibility. With this persuasion motive, no matter how extreme my beliefs are — given that the more extreme they are the more I gain by moving others’ opinions — there is always someone who would amplify [the information],” says senior author Ali Jadbabaie, professor and head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a core faculty member of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) and a principal investigator in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).

Joining Jadbabaie on the paper are first author Chin-Chia Hsu, a graduate student in the Social and Engineering Systems program in IDSS, and Amir Ajorlou, a LIDS research scientist. The research will be presented this week at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

Pondering persuasion

This research draws on a 2018 study by Sinan Aral, the David Austin Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management; Deb Roy, a professor of media arts and sciences at the Media Lab; and former postdoc Soroush Vosoughi (now an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth University). Their empirical study of data from Twitter found that false news spreads wider, faster, and deeper than real news.

Jadbabaie and his collaborators wanted to drill down on why this occurs.

They hypothesized that persuasion might be a strong motive for sharing news — perhaps agents in the network want to persuade others to take on their point of view — and decided to build a theoretical model that would let them explore this possibility.

In their model, agents have some prior belief about a policy, and their goal is to persuade followers to move their beliefs closer to the agent’s side of the spectrum.

A news item is initially released to a small, random subgroup of agents, which must decide whether to share this news with their followers. An agent weighs the newsworthiness of the item and its credibility, and updates its belief based on how surprising or convincing the news is. 

“They will make a cost-benefit analysis to see if, on average, this piece of news will move people closer to what they think or move them away. And we include a nominal cost for sharing. For instance, taking some action, if you are scrolling on social media, you have to stop to do that. Think of that as a cost. Or a reputation cost might come if I share something that is embarrassing. Everyone has this cost, so the more extreme and the more interesting the news is, the more you want to share it,” Jadbabaie says.

If the news affirms the agent’s perspective and has persuasive power that outweighs the nominal cost, the agent will always share the news. But if an agent thinks the news item is something others may have already seen, the agent is disincentivized to share it.

Since an agent’s willingness to share news is a product of its perspective and how persuasive the news is, the more extreme an agent’s perspective or the more surprising the news, the more likely the agent will share it.

The researchers used this model to study how information spreads during a news cascade, which is an unbroken sharing chain that rapidly permeates the network.

Connectivity and polarization

The team found that when a network has high connectivity and the news is surprising, the credibility threshold for starting a news cascade is lower. High connectivity means that there are multiple connections between many users in the network.

Likewise, when the network is largely polarized, there are plenty of agents with extreme views who want to share the news item, starting a news cascade. In both these instances, news with low credibility creates the largest cascades.

“For any piece of news, there is a natural network speed limit, a range of connectivity, that facilitates good transmission of information where the size of the cascade is maximized by true news. But if you exceed that speed limit, you will get into situations where inaccurate news or news with low credibility has a larger cascade size,” Jadbabaie says.

If the views of users in the network become more diverse, it is less likely that a poorly credible piece of news will spread more widely than the truth.

Jadbabaie and his colleagues designed the agents in the network to behave rationally, so the model would better capture actions real humans might take if they want to persuade others.

“Someone might say that is not why people share, and that is valid. Why people do certain things is a subject of intense debate in cognitive science, social psychology, neuroscience, economics, and political science,” he says. “Depending on your assumptions, you end up getting different results. But I feel like this assumption of persuasion being the motive is a natural assumption.”

Their model also shows how costs can be manipulated to reduce the spread of false information. Agents make a cost-benefit analysis and won’t share news if the cost to do so outweighs the benefit of sharing.

“We don’t make any policy prescriptions, but one thing this work suggests is that, perhaps, having some cost associated with sharing news is not a bad idea. The reason you get lots of these cascades is because the cost of sharing the news is actually very low,” he says.

“The role of social networks in shaping opinions and affecting behavior has been widely noted. Empirical research by Sinan Aral and his collaborators at MIT shows that false news is passed on more widely than true news,” says Sanjeev Goyal, professor of economics at Cambridge University, who was not involved with this research. “In their new paper, Ali Jadbabaie and his collaborators offer us an explanation for this puzzle with the help of an elegant model” 

This work was supported by an Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant and a Vannevar Bush Fellowship from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Share this news article on:

Related links.

• Ali Jadbabaie
• Chin-Chia Hsu
• Amir Ajorlou
• Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
• Laboratory for Information Decision Systems
• Schwarzman College of Computing

Related Topics

• Social media
• Social networks
• Technology and society
• Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS)

Related Articles

Study: Crowds can wise up to fake news

Artificial intelligence system could help counter the spread of disinformation

A remedy for the spread of false news.

Study: On Twitter, false news travels faster than true stories

Previous item Next item

More MIT News

Programming functional fabrics

Read full story →

Does technology help or hurt employment?

Most work is new work, long-term study of U.S. census data shows

A first-ever complete map for elastic strain engineering

“Life is short, so aim high”

Shining a light on oil fields to make them more sustainable

• More news on MIT News homepage →

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

• Map (opens in new window)
• Events (opens in new window)
• People (opens in new window)
• Careers (opens in new window)
• Accessibility
• Social Media Hub
• MIT on Facebook
• MIT on YouTube
• MIT on Instagram

• Frontiers in Psychology
• Research Topics

The Psychology of Fake News on Social Media: Who falls for it, who shares it, why, and can we help users detect it?

Total Downloads

Total Views and Downloads

About this Research Topic

The proliferation of fake news on social media has become a major societal concern which has been shown to impact U.S. elections, referenda, and most recently effective public health messaging for the COVID-19 pandemic. While some advances on the use of automated systems to detect and highlight fake news have ...

Keywords : Fake news, misinformation, social media, election, referendum, politics, democracy, communication, Facebook, Twitter, psychology, individual differences, intervention

Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic Editors

Topic coordinators, recent articles, submission deadlines.

Submission closed.

Participating Journals

Total views.

• Demographics

No records found

total views article views downloads topic views

Top countries

Top referring sites, about frontiers research topics.

With their unique mixes of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author.

• Follow us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Criminal Justice
• Environment
• Politics & Government
• Race & Gender

Expert Commentary

Fake news and the spread of misinformation: A research roundup

This collection of research offers insights into the impacts of fake news and other forms of misinformation, including fake Twitter images, and how people use the internet to spread rumors and misinformation.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource September 1, 2017

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/fake-news-conspiracy-theories-journalism-research/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

It’s too soon to say whether Google ’s and Facebook ’s attempts to clamp down on fake news will have a significant impact. But fabricated stories posing as serious journalism are not likely to go away as they have become a means for some writers to make money and potentially influence public opinion. Even as Americans recognize that fake news causes confusion about current issues and events, they continue to circulate it. A December 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that 23 percent of U.S. adults have shared fake news, knowingly or unknowingly, with friends and others.

“Fake news” is a term that can mean different things, depending on the context. News satire is often called fake news as are parodies such as the “Saturday Night Live” mock newscast Weekend Update. Much of the fake news that flooded the internet during the 2016 election season consisted of written pieces and recorded segments promoting false information or perpetuating conspiracy theories. Some news organizations published reports spotlighting examples of hoaxes, fake news and misinformation  on Election Day 2016.

The news media has written a lot about fake news and other forms of misinformation, but scholars are still trying to understand it — for example, how it travels and why some people believe it and even seek it out. Below, Journalist’s Resource has pulled together academic studies to help newsrooms better understand the problem and its impacts. Two other resources that may be helpful are the Poynter Institute’s tips on debunking fake news stories and the  First Draft Partner Network , a global collaboration of newsrooms, social media platforms and fact-checking organizations that was launched in September 2016 to battle fake news. In mid-2018, JR ‘s managing editor, Denise-Marie Ordway, wrote an article for  Harvard Business Review explaining what researchers know to date about the amount of misinformation people consume, why they believe it and the best ways to fight it.

—————————

“The Science of Fake News” Lazer, David M. J.; et al.   Science , March 2018. DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2998.

Summary: “The rise of fake news highlights the erosion of long-standing institutional bulwarks against misinformation in the internet age. Concern over the problem is global. However, much remains unknown regarding the vulnerabilities of individuals, institutions, and society to manipulations by malicious actors. A new system of safeguards is needed. Below, we discuss extant social and computer science research regarding belief in fake news and the mechanisms by which it spreads. Fake news has a long history, but we focus on unanswered scientific questions raised by the proliferation of its most recent, politically oriented incarnation. Beyond selected references in the text, suggested further reading can be found in the supplementary materials.”

“Who Falls for Fake News? The Roles of Bullshit Receptivity, Overclaiming, Familiarity, and Analytical Thinking” Pennycook, Gordon; Rand, David G. May 2018. Available at SSRN. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3023545.

Abstract:  “Inaccurate beliefs pose a threat to democracy and fake news represents a particularly egregious and direct avenue by which inaccurate beliefs have been propagated via social media. Here we present three studies (MTurk, N = 1,606) investigating the cognitive psychological profile of individuals who fall prey to fake news. We find consistent evidence that the tendency to ascribe profundity to randomly generated sentences — pseudo-profound bullshit receptivity — correlates positively with perceptions of fake news accuracy, and negatively with the ability to differentiate between fake and real news (media truth discernment). Relatedly, individuals who overclaim regarding their level of knowledge (i.e. who produce bullshit) also perceive fake news as more accurate. Conversely, the tendency to ascribe profundity to prototypically profound (non-bullshit) quotations is not associated with media truth discernment; and both profundity measures are positively correlated with willingness to share both fake and real news on social media. We also replicate prior results regarding analytic thinking — which correlates negatively with perceived accuracy of fake news and positively with media truth discernment — and shed further light on this relationship by showing that it is not moderated by the presence versus absence of information about the new headline’s source (which has no effect on perceived accuracy), or by prior familiarity with the news headlines (which correlates positively with perceived accuracy of fake and real news). Our results suggest that belief in fake news has similar cognitive properties to other forms of bullshit receptivity, and reinforce the important role that analytic thinking plays in the recognition of misinformation.”

“Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election” Allcott, Hunt; Gentzkow, Matthew. Working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, No. 23089, 2017.

Abstract: “We present new evidence on the role of false stories circulated on social media prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Drawing on audience data, archives of fact-checking websites, and results from a new online survey, we find: (i) social media was an important but not dominant source of news in the run-up to the election, with 14 percent of Americans calling social media their “most important” source of election news; (ii) of the known false news stories that appeared in the three months before the election, those favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared eight million times; (iii) the average American saw and remembered 0.92 pro-Trump fake news stories and 0.23 pro-Clinton fake news stories, with just over half of those who recalled seeing fake news stories believing them; (iv) for fake news to have changed the outcome of the election, a single fake article would need to have had the same persuasive effect as 36 television campaign ads.”

“Debunking: A Meta-Analysis of the Psychological Efficacy of Messages Countering Misinformation” Chan, Man-pui Sally; Jones, Christopher R.; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Albarracín, Dolores. Psychological Science , September 2017. DOI: 10.1177/0956797617714579.

Abstract: “This meta-analysis investigated the factors underlying effective messages to counter attitudes and beliefs based on misinformation. Because misinformation can lead to poor decisions about consequential matters and is persistent and difficult to correct, debunking it is an important scientific and public-policy goal. This meta-analysis (k = 52, N = 6,878) revealed large effects for presenting misinformation (ds = 2.41–3.08), debunking (ds = 1.14–1.33), and the persistence of misinformation in the face of debunking (ds = 0.75–1.06). Persistence was stronger and the debunking effect was weaker when audiences generated reasons in support of the initial misinformation. A detailed debunking message correlated positively with the debunking effect. Surprisingly, however, a detailed debunking message also correlated positively with the misinformation-persistence effect.”

“Displacing Misinformation about Events: An Experimental Test of Causal Corrections” Nyhan, Brendan; Reifler, Jason. Journal of Experimental Political Science , 2015. doi: 10.1017/XPS.2014.22.

Abstract: “Misinformation can be very difficult to correct and may have lasting effects even after it is discredited. One reason for this persistence is the manner in which people make causal inferences based on available information about a given event or outcome. As a result, false information may continue to influence beliefs and attitudes even after being debunked if it is not replaced by an alternate causal explanation. We test this hypothesis using an experimental paradigm adapted from the psychology literature on the continued influence effect and find that a causal explanation for an unexplained event is significantly more effective than a denial even when the denial is backed by unusually strong evidence. This result has significant implications for how to most effectively counter misinformation about controversial political events and outcomes.”

“Rumors and Health Care Reform: Experiments in Political Misinformation” Berinsky, Adam J. British Journal of Political Science , 2015. doi: 10.1017/S0007123415000186.

Abstract: “This article explores belief in political rumors surrounding the health care reforms enacted by Congress in 2010. Refuting rumors with statements from unlikely sources can, under certain circumstances, increase the willingness of citizens to reject rumors regardless of their own political predilections. Such source credibility effects, while well known in the political persuasion literature, have not been applied to the study of rumor. Though source credibility appears to be an effective tool for debunking political rumors, risks remain. Drawing upon research from psychology on ‘fluency’ — the ease of information recall — this article argues that rumors acquire power through familiarity. Attempting to quash rumors through direct refutation may facilitate their diffusion by increasing fluency. The empirical results find that merely repeating a rumor increases its power.”

“Rumors and Factitious Informational Blends: The Role of the Web in Speculative Politics” Rojecki, Andrew; Meraz, Sharon. New Media & Society , 2016. doi: 10.1177/1461444814535724.

Abstract: “The World Wide Web has changed the dynamics of information transmission and agenda-setting. Facts mingle with half-truths and untruths to create factitious informational blends (FIBs) that drive speculative politics. We specify an information environment that mirrors and contributes to a polarized political system and develop a methodology that measures the interaction of the two. We do so by examining the evolution of two comparable claims during the 2004 presidential campaign in three streams of data: (1) web pages, (2) Google searches, and (3) media coverage. We find that the web is not sufficient alone for spreading misinformation, but it leads the agenda for traditional media. We find no evidence for equality of influence in network actors.”

“Analyzing How People Orient to and Spread Rumors in Social Media by Looking at Conversational Threads” Zubiaga, Arkaitz; et al. PLOS ONE, 2016. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150989.

Abstract: “As breaking news unfolds people increasingly rely on social media to stay abreast of the latest updates. The use of social media in such situations comes with the caveat that new information being released piecemeal may encourage rumors, many of which remain unverified long after their point of release. Little is known, however, about the dynamics of the life cycle of a social media rumor. In this paper we present a methodology that has enabled us to collect, identify and annotate a dataset of 330 rumor threads (4,842 tweets) associated with 9 newsworthy events. We analyze this dataset to understand how users spread, support, or deny rumors that are later proven true or false, by distinguishing two levels of status in a rumor life cycle i.e., before and after its veracity status is resolved. The identification of rumors associated with each event, as well as the tweet that resolved each rumor as true or false, was performed by journalist members of the research team who tracked the events in real time. Our study shows that rumors that are ultimately proven true tend to be resolved faster than those that turn out to be false. Whilst one can readily see users denying rumors once they have been debunked, users appear to be less capable of distinguishing true from false rumors when their veracity remains in question. In fact, we show that the prevalent tendency for users is to support every unverified rumor. We also analyze the role of different types of users, finding that highly reputable users such as news organizations endeavor to post well-grounded statements, which appear to be certain and accompanied by evidence. Nevertheless, these often prove to be unverified pieces of information that give rise to false rumors. Our study reinforces the need for developing robust machine learning techniques that can provide assistance in real time for assessing the veracity of rumors. The findings of our study provide useful insights for achieving this aim.”

“Miley, CNN and The Onion” Berkowitz, Dan; Schwartz, David Asa. Journalism Practice , 2016. doi: 10.1080/17512786.2015.1006933.

Abstract: “Following a twerk-heavy performance by Miley Cyrus on the Video Music Awards program, CNN featured the story on the top of its website. The Onion — a fake-news organization — then ran a satirical column purporting to be by CNN’s Web editor explaining this decision. Through textual analysis, this paper demonstrates how a Fifth Estate comprised of bloggers, columnists and fake news organizations worked to relocate mainstream journalism back to within its professional boundaries.”

“Emotions, Partisanship, and Misperceptions: How Anger and Anxiety Moderate the Effect of Partisan Bias on Susceptibility to Political Misinformation”

Weeks, Brian E. Journal of Communication , 2015. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12164.

Abstract: “Citizens are frequently misinformed about political issues and candidates but the circumstances under which inaccurate beliefs emerge are not fully understood. This experimental study demonstrates that the independent experience of two emotions, anger and anxiety, in part determines whether citizens consider misinformation in a partisan or open-minded fashion. Anger encourages partisan, motivated evaluation of uncorrected misinformation that results in beliefs consistent with the supported political party, while anxiety at times promotes initial beliefs based less on partisanship and more on the information environment. However, exposure to corrections improves belief accuracy, regardless of emotion or partisanship. The results indicate that the unique experience of anger and anxiety can affect the accuracy of political beliefs by strengthening or attenuating the influence of partisanship.”

“Deception Detection for News: Three Types of Fakes” Rubin, Victoria L.; Chen, Yimin; Conroy, Niall J. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology , 2015, Vol. 52. doi: 10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010083.

Abstract: “A fake news detection system aims to assist users in detecting and filtering out varieties of potentially deceptive news. The prediction of the chances that a particular news item is intentionally deceptive is based on the analysis of previously seen truthful and deceptive news. A scarcity of deceptive news, available as corpora for predictive modeling, is a major stumbling block in this field of natural language processing (NLP) and deception detection. This paper discusses three types of fake news, each in contrast to genuine serious reporting, and weighs their pros and cons as a corpus for text analytics and predictive modeling. Filtering, vetting, and verifying online information continues to be essential in library and information science (LIS), as the lines between traditional news and online information are blurring.”

“When Fake News Becomes Real: Combined Exposure to Multiple News Sources and Political Attitudes of Inefficacy, Alienation, and Cynicism” Balmas, Meital. Communication Research , 2014, Vol. 41. doi: 10.1177/0093650212453600.

Abstract: “This research assesses possible associations between viewing fake news (i.e., political satire) and attitudes of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism toward political candidates. Using survey data collected during the 2006 Israeli election campaign, the study provides evidence for an indirect positive effect of fake news viewing in fostering the feelings of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism, through the mediator variable of perceived realism of fake news. Within this process, hard news viewing serves as a moderator of the association between viewing fake news and their perceived realism. It was also demonstrated that perceived realism of fake news is stronger among individuals with high exposure to fake news and low exposure to hard news than among those with high exposure to both fake and hard news. Overall, this study contributes to the scientific knowledge regarding the influence of the interaction between various types of media use on political effects.”

“Faking Sandy: Characterizing and Identifying Fake Images on Twitter During Hurricane Sandy” Gupta, Aditi; Lamba, Hemank; Kumaraguru, Ponnurangam; Joshi, Anupam. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on World Wide Web , 2013. doi: 10.1145/2487788.2488033.

Abstract: “In today’s world, online social media plays a vital role during real world events, especially crisis events. There are both positive and negative effects of social media coverage of events. It can be used by authorities for effective disaster management or by malicious entities to spread rumors and fake news. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of Twitter during Hurricane Sandy (2012) to spread fake images about the disaster. We identified 10,350 unique tweets containing fake images that were circulated on Twitter during Hurricane Sandy. We performed a characterization analysis, to understand the temporal, social reputation and influence patterns for the spread of fake images. Eighty-six percent of tweets spreading the fake images were retweets, hence very few were original tweets. Our results showed that the top 30 users out of 10,215 users (0.3 percent) resulted in 90 percent of the retweets of fake images; also network links such as follower relationships of Twitter, contributed very little (only 11 percent) to the spread of these fake photos URLs. Next, we used classification models, to distinguish fake images from real images of Hurricane Sandy. Best results were obtained from Decision Tree classifier, we got 97 percent accuracy in predicting fake images from real. Also, tweet-based features were very effective in distinguishing fake images tweets from real, while the performance of user-based features was very poor. Our results showed that automated techniques can be used in identifying real images from fake images posted on Twitter.”

“The Impact of Real News about ‘Fake News’: Intertextual Processes and Political Satire” Brewer, Paul R.; Young, Dannagal Goldthwaite; Morreale, Michelle. International Journal of Public Opinion Research , 2013. doi: 10.1093/ijpor/edt015.

Abstract: “This study builds on research about political humor, press meta-coverage, and intertextuality to examine the effects of news coverage about political satire on audience members. The analysis uses experimental data to test whether news coverage of Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC influenced knowledge and opinion regarding Citizens United, as well as political trust and internal political efficacy. It also tests whether such effects depended on previous exposure to The Colbert Report (Colbert’s satirical television show) and traditional news. Results indicate that exposure to news coverage of satire can influence knowledge, opinion, and political trust. Additionally, regular satire viewers may experience stronger effects on opinion, as well as increased internal efficacy, when consuming news coverage about issues previously highlighted in satire programming.”

“With Facebook, Blogs, and Fake News, Teens Reject Journalistic ‘Objectivity’” Marchi, Regina. Journal of Communication Inquiry , 2012. doi: 10.1177/0196859912458700.

Abstract: “This article examines the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media. Based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school students, it discusses how adolescents become informed about current events and why they prefer certain news formats to others. The results reveal changing ways news information is being accessed, new attitudes about what it means to be informed, and a youth preference for opinionated rather than objective news. This does not indicate that young people disregard the basic ideals of professional journalism but, rather, that they desire more authentic renderings of them.”

Keywords: alt-right, credibility, truth discovery, post-truth era, fact checking, news sharing, news literacy, misinformation, disinformation

5 fascinating digital media studies from fall 2018

Facebook and the newsroom: 6 questions for Siva Vaidhyanathan

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

Smart. Open. Grounded. Inventive. Read our Ideas Made to Matter.

Which program is right for you?

Through intellectual rigor and experiential learning, this full-time, two-year MBA program develops leaders who make a difference in the world.

A rigorous, hands-on program that prepares adaptive problem solvers for premier finance careers.

A 12-month program focused on applying the tools of modern data science, optimization and machine learning to solve real-world business problems.

Earn your MBA and SM in engineering with this transformative two-year program.

Combine an international MBA with a deep dive into management science. A special opportunity for partner and affiliate schools only.

A doctoral program that produces outstanding scholars who are leading in their fields of research.

Bring a business perspective to your technical and quantitative expertise with a bachelor’s degree in management, business analytics, or finance.

A joint program for mid-career professionals that integrates engineering and systems thinking. Earn your master’s degree in engineering and management.

An interdisciplinary program that combines engineering, management, and design, leading to a master’s degree in engineering and management.

Executive Programs

A full-time MBA program for mid-career leaders eager to dedicate one year of discovery for a lifetime of impact.

This 20-month MBA program equips experienced executives to enhance their impact on their organizations and the world.

Non-degree programs for senior executives and high-potential managers.

A non-degree, customizable program for mid-career professionals.

Why do people around the world share fake news? New research finds commonalities in global behavior

MIT Sloan Office of Communications

Jun 29, 2023

MIT Sloan study finds similar solutions to slow the spread of online misinformation can be effective in countries worldwide.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 29, 2023 – Since the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and British “Brexit” referendum — and then COVID-19 — opened the floodgates on fake news, academic research has delved into the psychology behind online misinformation and suggested interventions that might help curb the phenomenon. 

Most studies have focused on misinformation in the West, even though misinformation is very much a dire global problem. In 2017, false information on Facebook was implicated in genocide against the Rohingya minority group in Myanmar, and in 2020 at least two dozen people were killed in mob lynchings after rumors spread on WhatsApp in India. 

In a new paper published today in Nature Human Behaviour, “Understanding and Combating Misinformation Across 16 Countries on Six Continents,” MIT Sloan School of Management professor David Rand, found the traits shared by misinformation spreaders are surprisingly similar worldwide. With a dozen colleagues from universities across the globe — including lead author Professor Antonio A. Arechar of the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and joint senior author Professor Gordon Pennycook of Cornell University — the researchers also found common strategies and solutions to slow the spread of fake news, which can be effective across countries. 

“There’s a general psychology of misinformation that transcends cultural differences,” Rand said. “And broadly across many countries, we found that getting people to think about accuracy when deciding what to share, as well as showing them digital literacy tips, made them less likely to share false claims.”

The study, conducted in early 2021, found large variations across countries in how likely participants were to believe false statements about COVID-19 — for example, those in India believed false claims more than twice as much as those in the U.K. Overall, people from individualistic countries with open political systems were better at discerning true statements from falsehoods, the researchers found. However, in every country, they found that reflective analytic thinkers were less susceptible to believing false statements than people who relied on their gut. 

“Pretty much everywhere we looked, people who were better critical thinkers and who cared more about accuracy were less likely to believe the false claims,” Rand said. In the study, people who got all three questions wrong on a critical thinking quiz were twice as likely to believe false claims compared to people who got all three questions correct. Valuing democracy was also consistently associated with being better at identifying truth. 

On the other side, endorsing individual responsibility over government support and belief in God were linked to more difficulty in discerning true from false statements. People who said they would definitely not get vaccinated against COVID-19 when the vaccine became available were 52.9% more likely to believe false claims versus those who said they would. 

The researchers also found that at the end of the study, while 79% of participants said it's very or extremely important to only share accurate news, 77% of them had nonetheless shared at least one false statement as part of the experiment.

What explains this striking disconnect?  “A lot of it is people just not paying attention to accuracy,” Rand said. “In a social media environment, there’s so much to focus on around the social aspects of sharing — how many likes will I get, who else shared this — and we have limited cognitive bandwidth. So people often simply forget to even think about whether claims are true before they share them.” 

This observation suggests ways to combat the spread of misinformation. Participants across countries who were nudged to focus on accuracy by evaluating the truth of an initial non-COVID-related question were nearly 10% less likely to share a false statement. Very simple  digital literacy tips help focus attention on accuracy too, said Rand, and those who read them were 8.4% less likely to share a false statement. The researchers also discovered that when averaging as few as 20 participant ratings, it was possible to identify false headlines with very high accuracy, leveraging the “ wisdom of crowds ” to help platforms spot misinformation at scale.

Methodology

In their study, Rand and colleagues recruited social media users from 16 countries across South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Australia and the United States were also among the countries, and nine languages were represented. Of the final sample size of 34,286, 45% were female and the mean age was 38.7 years old. 

The researchers randomly assigned study participants to one of four groups: Accuracy, Sharing, Prompt, and Tips. All participants were shown 10 false and 10 true COVID-19-related statements taken from the websites of health and news organizations including the World Health Organization and the BBC. For example, one false statement read, “Masks, Gloves, Vaccines, And Synthetic Hand Soaps Suppress Your Immune System,” while a true one said, “The likelihood of shoes spreading COVID-19 is very low.”

Accuracy group participants were asked to assess statements’ accuracy on a six-point scale, while the Sharing group rated how likely they would be to share statements. Study participants in the Prompt group were first asked to evaluate the accuracy of a non-COVID-related statement — “Flight attendant slaps crying baby during flight” — before deciding whether or not to share COVID statements. Finally, the Tips group read four simple digital literacy tips before they chose whether or not to share.

Implications for policy

The research has implications for policymakers and organizations like the United Nations looking to combat misinformation around the globe, as well as for social media companies trying to cut down on fake news sharing. “Really for anyone doing anti-disinformation work,” Rand said. “This research helps us better understand who is susceptible to misinformation, and it shows us there are globally relevant interventions to help.”

Social media companies could regularly ask users to rate the accuracy of headlines as a way to prompt them to focus on accuracy and share more thoughtfully, while also gathering useful data to help actually identify misinformation. Future research should test these types of interventions in field experiments on social media platforms around the world, Rand said. “If you focus people back on accuracy, they are less likely to share bad content,” he concluded.

About the MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu .

Related Articles

• Share full article

Advertisement

How Social Media Amplifies Misinformation More Than Information

A new analysis found that algorithms and some features of social media sites help false posts go viral.

By Steven Lee Myers

• Oct. 13, 2022

It is well known that social media amplifies misinformation and other harmful content. The Integrity Institute, an advocacy group, is now trying to measure exactly how much — and on Thursday it began publishing results that it plans to update each week through the midterm elections on Nov. 8.

The institute’s initial report, posted online , found that a “well-crafted lie” will get more engagements than typical, truthful content and that some features of social media sites and their algorithms contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Twitter, the analysis showed, has what the institute called the great misinformation amplification factor, in large part because of its feature allowing people to share, or “retweet,” posts easily. It was followed by TikTok, the Chinese-owned video site, which uses machine-learning models to predict engagement and make recommendations to users.

“We see a difference for each platform because each platform has different mechanisms for virality on it,” said Jeff Allen, a former integrity officer at Facebook and a founder and the chief research officer at the Integrity Institute. “The more mechanisms there are for virality on the platform, the more we see misinformation getting additional distribution.”

The institute calculated its findings by comparing posts that members of the International Fact-Checking Network have identified as false with the engagement of previous posts that were not flagged from the same accounts. It analyzed nearly 600 fact-checked posts in September on a variety of subjects, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the upcoming elections.

Facebook, according to the sample that the institute has studied so far, had the most instances of misinformation but amplified such claims to a lesser degree, in part because sharing posts requires more steps. But some of its newer features are more prone to amplify misinformation, the institute found.

Facebook’s amplification factor of video content alone is closer to TikTok’s, the institute found. That’s because the platform’s Reels and Facebook Watch, which are video features, “both rely heavily on algorithmic content recommendations” based on engagements, according to the institute’s calculations.

Instagram, which like Facebook is owned by Meta, had the lowest amplification rate. There was not yet sufficient data to make a statistically significant estimate for YouTube, according to the institute.

The institute plans to update its findings to track how the amplification fluctuates, especially as the midterm elections near. Misinformation, the institute’s report said, is much more likely to be shared than merely factual content.

“Amplification of misinformation can rise around critical events if misinformation narratives take hold,” the report said. “It can also fall, if platforms implement design changes around the event that reduce the spread of misinformation.”

Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation for The Times. He has worked in Washington, Moscow, Baghdad and Beijing, where he contributed to the articles that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2021. He is also the author of “The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin.” More about Steven Lee Myers

The Rise of TikTok

“Being labeled a “yapper” on TikTok isn’t necessarily a compliment, but on a platform built on talk, it isn’t an insult either .

“Who TF Did I Marry?!?,” the TikTok user Reesa Teesa’s account of her relationship with her ex-husband, is a story for grown-ups  in their midlife crisis era.

Return fraud is a rampant problem  for both shoppers and retailers — and the mishaps often make for viral videos on TikTok.

The Pink Stuff, a home cleaning paste, went from total obscurity to viral sensation — and Walmart staple — thanks to one “cleanfluencer” and her legion of fans .

Have we reached the end of TikTok’s infinite scroll? The app once offered seemingly endless chances to be charmed but in only a few short years, its promise of kismet is evaporating , our critic writes.

The TikTok creator known as “Tunnel Girl” has been documenting her attempt to build an emergency shelter under her home. She is not the only person with an off-the-books tunnel project .

• Request Info

Waidner-Spahr Library

• Do Research
• About the Library
• Dickinson Scholar
• Ask a Librarian
• My Library Account

Social Media: Fake News

• Online Persona
• Information Timeline

What is "Fake News?"

"Fake news" refers to news articles or other items that are deliberately false and intended to manipulate the viewer. While the concept of fake news stretches back to antiquity, it has become a large problem in recent years due to the ease with which it can be spread on social media and other online platforms, as people are often less likely to critically evaluate news shared by their friends or that confirms their existing beliefs. Fake news is alleged to have contributed to important political and economic outcomes in recent years. 

This page presents strategies for detecting fake news and researching the topic through reliable sources so you can draw your own conclusions. The most important thing you can do is to recognize fake news and halt its dissemination by not spreading it to your social circles. 

What are Social Media Platforms Doing?

Several social media platforms have responded to the rise in fake news by adjusting their news feeds, labeling news stories as false or contested, or through other approaches. Google has also made changes to address the problem. The websites below explain some of the steps these platforms are taking. These steps can only go so far, however; it's always the responsibility of the reader to question and verify information found online. 

• Working to Stop Misinformation and False News--Facebook
• Facebook Tweaks Its 'Trending Topics' Algorithm To Better Reflect Real News--Facebook
• Facebook says it will act against 'information operations' using false accounts--Facebook
• Fact Check now available in Google Search and News around the world--Google
• Google has banned 200 publishers since it passed a new policy against fake news
• Solutions that can stop fake news spreading--BBC

Recognizing Fake News

You've all seen fake news before, and it's easy to recognize the worst examples. 

Fake news is often too good to be true, too extreme, or too out of line with what you know to be true and what other news sources are telling you. The following suggestions for recognizing fake news are taken from the NPR story  Fake News Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts . 

• Pay attention to the domain and URL : Reliable websites have familiar names and standard URLs, like .com or .edu. 
• Read the "About Us" section : Insufficient or overblown language can signal an unreliable source. 
• Look at the quotes in a story : Good stories quote multiple experts to get a range of perspectives on an issue.
• Look at who said them : Can you verify that the quotes are correct? What kind of authority do the sources possess?
• Check the comments : Comments on social media platforms can alert you when the story doesn't support the headline.
• Reverse image search : If an image used in a story appears on other websites about different topics, it's a good sign the image isn't actually what the story claims it is. 

If in doubt, contact a librarian for help evaluating the claim and the source of the news using reliable sources. 

Strategies for Combatting Fake News

• Be aware of the problem : Many popular sources, particularly online news sources and social media, are competing for your attention through outlandish claims, and sometimes with the intent of manipulating the viewer
• Think critically : Critically evaluate news that you encounter. If it sounds too good (or sometimes too bad) to be true, it probably is. Most fake news preys on our desire to have our beliefs confirmed, whether they be positive or negative
• Check facts against reliable sources : When you encounter a claim in the news, particularly if it sets off alarm bells for you, take the time to evaluate the claim using reputable sources including library databases, fact checking websites like  Snopes.com  or  PolitiFact , and authoritative news sources like the New York Times  (click for instructions on registering an account) and the BBC . While established news sources can also be wrong from time to time, they take care to do extensive fact checking to validate their articles
• Stop the spread of fake news : You can do your part in halting the spread of fake news by not spreading it further on social media, through email, or in conversation

Real or Fake?

• News Story 1
• News Story 2

Is this news item real or fake? Try evaluating it using the tips presented on this page.

Story 1 (November 2011): SHOCK - Brain surgeon confirms ObamaCare rations care, has death panels!

Story 2 (January 2017): The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned

How Social Media Spreads Fake News

Social media is one of the main ways that fake news is spread online. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter make it easy to share trending news without taking the time to critically evaluate it.

People are also less likely to critically evaluate news shared by their friends, so misleading news stories end up getting spread throughout social networks with a lot of momentum.

Read the articles below to get a better understanding of how social media can reinforce our preexisting beliefs and make us more likely to believe fake news. 

• Stanford study examines fake news and the 2016 presidential election
• The reason your feed became an echo chamber--and what to do about it
• How fake news goes viral: a case study
• Is Facebook keeping you in a political bubble?
• 2016 Lie of the Year: Fake news
• Fake News Expert On How False Stories Spread and Why People Believe Them
• BBC News--Filter Bubbles
• NPR--Researchers Examine When People Are More Susceptible To Fake News
• << Previous: Danger
• Next: Information Timeline >>
• Last Updated: Jul 18, 2023 4:14 PM
• URL: https://libguides.dickinson.edu/socialmedia

Read our research on: Abortion | Podcasts | Election 2024

Regions & Countries

Misinformation, ­most americans favor restrictions on false information, violent content online.

Most Americans say the U.S. government and technology companies should each take steps to restrict false information and extremely violent content online.

As AI Spreads, Experts Predict the Best and Worst Changes in Digital Life by 2035

Social media seen as mostly good for democracy across many nations, but u.s. is a major outlier, the role of alternative social media in the news and information environment, sign up for the briefing.

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

All Misinformation Publications

Majorities in most countries surveyed say social media is good for democracy.

Across 27 countries surveyed, people generally see social media as more of a good thing than a bad thing for democracy.

As they watch the splashy emergence of generative artificial intelligence and an array of other AI applications, experts participating in a new Pew Research Center canvassing say they have deep concerns about people's and society's overall well-being. At the same time, they expect to see great benefits in health care, scientific advances and education

Most think social media has made it easier to manipulate and divide people, but they also say it informs and raises awareness.

In recent years, several new options have emerged in the social media universe, many of which explicitly present themselves as alternatives to more established social media platforms. Free speech ideals and heated political themes prevail on these sites, which draw praise from their users and skepticism from other Americans.

What do journalists think the news industry does best and worst?

Nearly 12,000 U.S.-based journalists in a pair of open-ended questions were asked to write down the one thing the news industry does the best job of these days and what it does worst.

Journalists Sense Turmoil in Their Industry Amid Continued Passion for Their Work

A survey of U.S.-based journalists finds 77% would choose their career all over again, though 57% are highly concerned about future restrictions on press freedom.

AI and Human Enhancement: Americans’ Openness Is Tempered by a Range of Concerns

Public views are tied to how these technologies would be used and what constraints would be in place.

The Future of Digital Spaces and Their Role in Democracy

Many experts say public online spaces will significantly improve by 2035 if reformers, big technology firms, governments and activists tackle the problems created by misinformation, disinformation and toxic discourse. Others expect continuing troubles as digital tools and forums are used to exploit people’s frailties, stoke their rage and drive them apart.

The Behaviors and Attitudes of U.S. Adults on Twitter

A minority of Twitter users produce a majority of tweets from U.S. adults, and the most active tweeters are less likely to view the tone or civility of discussions as a major problem on the site.

Refine Your Results

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

An Effective Hybrid Model for Fake News Detection in Social Media Using Deep Learning Approach

• Original Research
• Published: 27 March 2024
• Volume 5 , article number  346 , ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• R. Raghavendra   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3538-2339 1 &
• M. Niranjanamurthy 2  

Explore all metrics

Social media is a strong Internet platform that allows people to voice their thoughts about numerous events happening in real time at multiple locations. People comment and express their thoughts on any social media post. Meanwhile, fake news or misleading information is disseminated regarding exciting occurrences that occur in real time. A large number of Internet users read and distribute such false and fake material without knowing the nature or legitimacy of the news. This has a detrimental influence on people’s perceptions of the particular event. Classical techniques are utilized to determine the type of news distributed on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. However, these techniques fail to take into account characteristics such as news-generating location, consistency, timing, and novelty. It eventually leads to a scenario in which individuals form incorrect ideas and have misleading perceptions regarding any startling news. The spread of misleading thoughts and remarks has a significant impact on real-world action results. This research article addresses these difficulties by developing a system for detecting fake news using deep learning techniques and models. To determine the originality of the news, place of generation, and longevity, two deep learning models are developed artificial neural network and a mixed classifier model of convolution neural networks and long short-term memory. This aids in detecting bogus news and removing it from the server where it is stored. The tests utilizing these coupled models increase the detection of false information in social media. Furthermore, geo-map is used in this research to aids in the regulation of fake news flowing on social media regarding unique occasions occurring all over the world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Fake news detection using recurrent neural network based on bidirectional LSTM and GloVe

Laith Abualigah, Yazan Yehia Al-Ajlouni, … Hazem Migdady

Detecting Fake News for Societal Benefit Using a Deep Learning Approach

Using Artificial Intelligence Against the Phenomenon of Fake News: A Systematic Literature Review

Data availability.

Not applicable.

Hanshal OA, Ucan ON, Sanjalawe YK. Hybrid deep learning model for automatic fake news detection. Appl Nanosci. 2023;13(4):2957–67.

Article   Google Scholar  

Jing J, et al. Multimodal fake news detection via progressive fusion networks. Inf Process Manag. 2023;60(1):103120.

Rawat G, et al. Fake news detection using machine learning. In: 2023 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Communication (AISC), IEEE. 2023.

Lai CM, Chen MH, Kristiani E, Verma VK, Yang CT. Fake news classification based on content level features. Appl Sci. 2022;12(3):1116.

Mridha MF, Keya AJ, Hamid MA, Monowar MM, Rahman MS. A comprehensive review on fake news detection with deep learning. IEEE access. 2021.

Nasir JA, Khan OS, Varlamis I. Fake news detection: a hybrid CNN-RNN based deep learning approach. Int J Inf Manag Data Insights. 2021;1(1): 100007.

Google Scholar  

Khan JY, Khondaker MTI, Afroz S, Uddin G, Iqbal A. A benchmark study of machine learning models for online fake news detection. Mach Learn Appl. 2021;4: 100032.

Kaliyar RK, Goswami A, Narang P. A hybrid model for effective fake news detection with a novel COVID-19 dataset. In: ICAART. 2021;2:1066–1072.

Zeng J, Zhang Y, Ma X. Fake news detection for epidemic emergencies via deep correlations between text and images. Sustain Cities Soc. 2021;66: 102652.

Aslam N, Ullah Khan I, Alotaibi FS, Aldaej LA, Aldubaikil AK. Fake detect: a deep learning ensemble model for fake news detection. Complexity. 2021;2021:1.

Ashik SS, Apu AR, Marjana NJ, Islam MS, Hasan MA. M82B at CheckThat! 2021: Multiclass fake news detection using BiLSTM. 2021.

Chauhan T, Palivela H. Optimization and improvement of fake news detection using deep learning approaches for societal benefit. Int J Inf Manag Data Insights. 2021;1(2): 100051.

Choudhary M, Chouhan SS, Pilli ES, Vipparthi SK. BerConvoNet: a deep learning framework for fake news classification. Appl Soft Comput. 2021;110: 107614.

Sadr MM. The use of LSTM neural network to detect fake news on Persian twitter. Turkish J Comput Math Edu (TURCOMAT). 2021;12(11):6658–68.

Seyam A, Bou Nassif A, Abu Talib M, Nasir Q, Al Blooshi B. Deep learning models to detect online false information: a systematic literature review. In: The 7th Annual International Conference on Arab Women in Computing in Conjunction with the 2nd Forum of Women in Research, 2021;1–5.

Chitra NT, Anusha R, Kumar SH, Chandana DS, Harika C, Kumar VU. Satellite imagery for deforestation prediction using deep learning. In: 2021 5th International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS), IEEE, 2021;522–525.

Islam MR, Liu S, Wang X, Xu G. Deep learning for misinformation detection on online social networks: a survey and new perspectives. Soc Netw Anal Min. 2020;10(1):1–20.

Umer M, Imtiaz Z, Ullah S, Mehmood A, Choi GS, On BW. Fake news stance detection using deep learning architecture (CNN-LSTM). IEEE Access. 2020;8:156695–706.

Kaliyar RK, Goswami A, Narang P, Sinha S. FNDNet–a deep convolutional neural network for fake news detection. Cogn Syst Res. 2020;61:32–44.

Aniyath A. A survey on fake news detection by the data mining perspective. Int J Inf Comput Sci. 2019;6(1):9–28.

Zhang J, Dong B, Philip SY. Fakedetector: effective fake news detection with deep diffusive neural network. In: 2020 IEEE 36th International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), IEEE, 2020;1826–1829.

Lee DH, Kim YR, Kim HJ, Park SM, Yang YJ. Fake news detection using deep learning. J Inf Process Syst. 2019;15(5):1119–30.

Drif A, Hamida ZF, Giordano S. Fake news detection method based on text-features. In: The Ninth International Conference on Advances in Information Mining and Management (IMMM), 2019.

Ramya SP, Eswari R. Attention-based deep learning models for detection of fake news in social networks. Int J Cogn Inf Nat Int (IJCINI). 2021;15(4):1–25.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of MCA, BMS Institute of Technology and Management (Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University), Jnana Sangama, Avalahalli, Belgavi, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560064, India

R. Raghavendra

Department of AI and ML, BMS Institute of Technology and Management (Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University), Jnana Sangama, Avalahalli, Belgavi, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560064, India

M. Niranjanamurthy

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Corresponding author.

Correspondence to R. Raghavendra .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest, research involving human and/or animals, informed consent, additional information, publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is part of the topical collection “Diverse Applications in Computing, Analytics and Networks” guest edited by Archana Mantri and Sagar Juneja.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Raghavendra, R., Niranjanamurthy, M. An Effective Hybrid Model for Fake News Detection in Social Media Using Deep Learning Approach. SN COMPUT. SCI. 5 , 346 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-024-02698-4

Download citation

Received : 15 June 2023

Accepted : 12 February 2024

Published : 27 March 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-024-02698-4

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Artificial neural network (ANN)
• Convolutional neural network (CNN)
• Long short-term memory (LSTM)
• False/fake news detection (FND)
• Natural language processing (NLP)

Advertisement

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection

The impact of fake news on social media and its influence on health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Yasmim mendes rocha.

1 Post-graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Federal University of Ceará (UFC), Campus Porangabussu, Fortaleza, CE 60.430-370 Brazil

Gabriel Acácio de Moura

2 Post-graduate Program in Veterinary Sciences, State University of Ceará (UECE), Campus do Itaperi, Fortaleza, CE 60.714-903 Brazil

Gabriel Alves Desidério

3 Health Sciences Institute, University of International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony Brazil, CE 060 – Km51, Redençao, CE 62785-000 Brazil

Carlos Henrique de Oliveira

Francisco dantas lourenço, larissa deadame de figueiredo nicolete.

As the new coronavirus disease propagated around the world, the rapid spread of news caused uncertainty in the population. False news has taken over social media, becoming part of life for many people. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate, through a systematic review, the impact of social media on the dissemination of infodemic knowing and its impacts on health.

A systematic search was performed in the MedLine, Virtual Health Library (VHL), and Scielo databases from January 1, 2020, to May 11, 2021. Studies that addressed the impact of fake news on patients and healthcare professionals around the world were included. It was possible to methodologically assess the quality of the selected studies using the Loney and Newcastle–Ottawa Scales.

Fourteen studies were eligible for inclusion, consisting of six cross-sectional and eight descriptive observational studies. Through questionnaires, five studies included measures of anxiety or psychological distress caused by misinformation; another seven assessed feeling fear, uncertainty, and panic, in addition to attacks on health professionals and people of Asian origin.

By analyzing the phenomenon of fake news in health, it was possible to observe that infodemic knowledge can cause psychological disorders and panic, fear, depression, and fatigue.

Introduction

Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, led to the emergence of a pandemic, with a shift in economics, disruption in education, and various rules on home confinement (Munster et al. 2020 ). In this context of uncertainty, there was a need for new information about the virus, clinical manifestations, transmission, and prevention of the disease (Eysenbach 2020 ).

The rapid implementation of these measures, together with the number of significant deaths caused by the virus, ended up causing uncertainty in the population (Tangcharoensathien et al. 2020 ). In association with the generalized panic and the constant concern that COVID-19 caused, this culminated in the appearance of physical and psychological disorders, in addition to reduced immunity in the general population (Lima et al. 2020 ).

Previous studies indicate that the emergence of the pandemic and measures of social confinement caused the number of patients and health professionals with anxiety, sleep disorders and depression to increase; in addition, suicide rates were also considered high (Choi et al. 2020 ; Okechukwu et al. 2020 ). However, the use of social media and search queries to obtain information about the course of the disease is constantly expanding, and includes Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Google Trends, Bing, Yahoo, and other more popular sources such as blogs, forums, or Wikipedia (Depoux et al. 2020 ).

Thus, information overload accompanied by fabricated and fraudulent news, also called fake news (FN), has emerged in the twentieth century to designate the fake news produced and published by mass communication vehicles such as social media, dominating traditional and social platforms, becoming increasingly part of many people’s daily lives. FNs multiply rapidly and act as narratives that omit or add information to facts (Naeem et al. 2020 ).

The potential effect of FN stems from conspiracy theories, such as a biological weapon produced in China, water with lemon or coconut oil that could kill the virus, or drugs, which even if approved for other indications, could have potential effectiveness in prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Therefore, the impact of this massive dissemination of disease-related information is known as “infodemic knowledge” (Hua and Shaw 2020 ). Other worrisome examples of infodemic knowledge include cases of hydroxychloroquine overdose in Nigeria, drug shortages, changing treatment of patients with rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, and panic over supplies and fuel (CNN 2020 ; Tentolouris et al. 2021 ).

The World Health Organization (WHO 2020 ) has worked closely to track and respond to the most prevalent myths and rumors that can potentially harm public health. In this context, the objective of the study was to evaluate, through a systematic review, the impact of the media and the media during the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, and to determine how the spread of infodemic impacts people’s health.

This is a systematic literature review that aimed to use explicit and systematic methods to avoid the chance of risk of bias (Donato and Donato 2019 ). Therefore, the study followed a design according to the guidelines of Preferred Report items for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) and PRISMA Meta-analyses (PRISMA 2021 ) and the search procedures were filed in the database and registered in PROSPERO: CRD42021256508 (PROSPERO 2021 ).

Searching strategy

Search strategies were developed from the identification of relevant articles using the Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH) in a combination of Boolean AND. The search by string and keyword was calculated as follows: “Covid-19” OR “SARS-CoV-2” AND “fake news” AND “health” OR “Covid-19” AND “fake news” OR “misinformation” AND “health”. The strategy was performed using MedLine, Virtual Health Library (VHL), and Scielo databases. Search results were revised to prevent duplicate studies. The articles obtained were analyzed for relevance and step-by-step, as illustrated in Fig.  1 . The report items for systematic review illustrate the PRISMA (PRISMA 2021 ) process used to report the results.

Search strategy flowchart

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The search terms were oriented according to the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Results and Study Design (PICOS) approach, methodology used to select the studies included in the systematic search (Methley et al. 2014 ), as shown in Table ​ Table1. 1 . Cross-sectional studies, of cohorts or clinicians that addressed the impact of fake news on patients and health professionals around the world, were used. On the other hand, studies that did not refer to the proposed theme, review articles, or were letters and opinions were excluded. In addition, only full articles written in English, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish, published between January 1, 2020, and May 11, 2021, were reviewed.

Approach to study selection (PICO) following systematic search

Database searched in May 2021

Assessment of risk of bias in included studies

Internal quality was performed based on selected study designs using two scales to independently assess the risk of bias; Newcastle–Ottawa for cohort studies and Loney scale for cross-sectional studies. In case of disagreement between two researchers, the assessment was performed by a third experienced researcher (Santos et al. 2019 ). The assessment of the risk of bias between studies was assessed as shown in Tables  2 and ​ and3 3 .

Methodological quality of cross-sectional studies (Loney Scale)

Questions in header relate to different criteria of quality as measured by the Loney Scale:

1 – Is the study design and sampling appropriate to answer the research question? 2 – Is the sample base adequate? 3 – Is the sample size adequate? 4 – Are adequate and standardized objective criteria used to measure motor development? 5 – Was EDM applied in an unbiased way? 6 – Is the response rate adequate? 7 – Were the EDM results presented in a detailed way? 8 – Are participants and context described in detail and can they be generalized to other situations?

Numbers alongside each reference relate to quality of response questions above: 1 = adequate, 2 = inadequate

Methodological quality on the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS)

Questions in header relate to different criteria of quality as measured by the NOS:

Selection 1: representativeness of the exposed cohort; Selection 2: selection of the unexposed cohort; Selection 3: exposure determination; Selection 4: demonstration that the result of interest was not present at baseline; Comparability 1a and 1b: comparability of cohorts based on design or analysis; Results 1: result evaluation; Results 2: follow-up of cohorts; Results 3: adequacy of cohort follow-up

Data extraction

After collecting data from the articles, they were extracted and tabulated according to the information cited later:

• Type of study.
• Source of FNs.
• Impact of FNs on health.
• Age of participants.
• Country of origin.
• Number of patients.

Study selection

The search strategy identified 1644 publications through the MedLine database, the Virtual Health Library (VHL), and Scielo databases. Of these studies found, 24 were removed for being duplicative and 1606 for being within the exclusion criteria. Based on this, 14 studies met the inclusion criteria and were suitable to be considered in the present review, as shown in Fig. ​ Fig.1 1 .

Study characteristics

Of all the studies included, six were cross-sectional (Ruiz-Frutos et al. 2020 ; Islam et al. 2020 ; Talwar et al. 2020 ; Sallam et al. 2020 ; Duplaga 2020 ; Secosan et al. 2020 ) and eight were descriptive observational studies (Radwan et al. 2020 ; Sun et al. 2020 ; Ahmad and Murad 2020 ; Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 ; Roozenbeek et al. 2020 ; Montesi 2020 ; Schmidt et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ). The sample size of the fourteen selected articles was a total of 571,729 participants, 1467 false new items, and 2508 reports. Most participants were over 18 years of age. The studies were conducted in 14 different countries, including Palestine ( n  = 1), Spain ( n  = 4), India ( n  = 1), Bangladesh ( n  = 1), Iraq ( n  = 1), Mexico ( n  = 1), United States of America ( n  = 1), United Kingdom ( n  = 1), Ireland ( n = 1), Jordan ( n  = 2), China n  = 1), South Africa ( n  = 1), Poland ( n  = 1) and Romania ( n  = 1), each study being able to evaluate more than one country. Other characteristics of the study and the results of the primary study are summarized in Table ​ Table4 4 .

Characteristics of study samples and risk factors associated with fake news

*Possible significant effect of the relationship between fake news and people older than 76 years because they are more likely to be influenced by fake news and to spread such information

The potential risks of misinformation

The results included varied in our review. It was possible to identify that misinformation could trigger varied disturbances to an individual’s perception of FNs. In five papers, the population was observed to be more prone to fearful situations (Talwar et al. 2020 ; Ahmad and Murad 2020 ; Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 ; Schmidt et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ). Consequently, two studies found that a proportion of these patients who reported being afraid because of the influence of FNs reported being confused as to the veracity of this transmitted information (Schmidt et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ). Our review also found that this situation of fear and confusion can lead to the onset of panic (Talwar et al. 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ; Duplaga 2020 ; Ahmad and Murad 2020 ; Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 ; Schmidt et al. 2020 ). In which, the set between the perceptual aspects to these FN can lead to milder symptoms such as fatigue (Islam et al. 2020 ), stress (Secosan et al. 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ), insomnia (Secosan et al. 2020 ), and anger (Radwan et al. 2020 ). The literature also informs us that in addition to milder symptoms inherent to a state of confusion with regard to perceived misinformation conveyed, there is a likelihood of more complex symptomatologies as was reported in five studies with an increase in the number of patients with anxiety (Ruiz-Frutos et al. 2020 ; Sallam et al. 2020 ; Secosan et al. 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ; Sun et al. 2020 ). Patients have also reported being affected by depression processes inherent to these FNs (Secosan et al. 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ).

Susceptibility to spreading fake news according to education and age of the population

To understand the behavior of rumor spreading among the population, our findings reveal that the age of the patients who participated in the study varied mainly between 18 and 60 years, which could infer that a good portion of individuals in different age groups could be susceptible to FN spread through social media. However, in a single study, it was found that people over the age of 76 were more susceptible to being influenced by fake news as well as spreading this information (Sun et al. 2020 ). Another important finding in the literature indicates that susceptibility to interacting with FN is independent of the individual educational level of each study subject, where in four studies it was observed that the patients involved were in secondary school (Duplaga 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ; Sun et al. 2020 ), five studies addressed the susceptibility of undergraduate patients to FN (Sallam et al. 2020 ; Duplaga 2020 ; Secosan et al. 2020 ; Sun et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ), and in two studies graduate patients were observed (Sun et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ).

Content and propagation of fake news circulating on social networking platforms

It was possible to verify in the selected articles that the social network Facebook had the greatest participation in the selected studies (Islam et al. 2020 ; Sallam et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ), followed by Youtube in three studies (Islam et al. 2020 ; Sallam et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ) and WhatsApp in three more studies (Sallam et al. 2020 ; Radwan et al. 2020 ; Fernández-Torres et al. 2021 ); Twitter appeared in only one study (Sallam et al. 2020 ). Among the main FNs, we had the disclosure that the consumption of food, vitamins, and beverages improved the clinical condition of the affected patient, in addition to reducing the contamination rate (Islam et al. 2020 ; Secosan et al. 2020 ). In other studies, the infection improved with the use of mouthwashes and cutaneous substances (Sun et al. 2020 ; Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 ). News related to viral spread, such as the creation of the virus in the laboratory and the spread of the virus by vectors such as mosquitoes, were also addressed (Ahmad and Murad 2020 ; Roozenbeek et al. 2020 ; Montesi 2020 ). Vaccines have also become targets of fake news in studies (Montesi 2020 ).

In the context of the pandemic, the media emerged to seek information about the disease. However, many occurrences were false news masquerading as reliable disease prevention and control strategies, which created an overload of misinformation. In this process, there was interference in the behavior and health of people, generating social unrest associated with violence, distrust, social disturbances, and attacks on health professionals (Moscadelli et al. 2020 ; Apuke and Omar 2021 ).

Overall, our review suggests that people of different nationalities were affected by sharing unverified information. In all the studies included, totaling 1467 news and 2508 reports, the results show that people trust the information they find on social networks, and through these accounts ended up believing and being affected by this information. Only one author pointed out that the news did not represent a danger to people’s health and safety, being considered harmless. This fact was explained by Aleinikov et al. ( 2020 ) pointing out that in this delicate process, the important thing is to relate the perception of risk found in social media and trust in the information provided by institutions (Aleinikov et al. 2020 ).

These tools, while becoming increasingly popular, are also increasingly exposed to unreliable information. As a result, people feel anxious, depressed, or emotionally exhausted, and these expressive health effects are directly associated with the spread of this information (Lin et al. 2020 ). So much so, that when analyzing our data, it was realized that this interaction can come with both mild effects and more serious psychological problems. This is also consistent with the literature, according to Jiang ( 2021 ), who evaluated the possible psychological impact of social media on students during the pandemic and found an increase in the anxiety levels of these students, as well as a worsening in academic performance and physical exhaustion (Jiang 2021 ).

The proliferation of false news has consequences for public health because it fuels panic among people and discredits the scientific community in the eyes of public opinion. For example, a popular myth that consumption of pure alcohol — methanol — could eliminate the virus in the contaminated body killed approximately 800 people in Iran, while another 5876 people were hospitalized for methanol poisoning (Hassanian-Moghaddam et al. 2020 ). As demonstrated in our evaluation, Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 and Secosan et al. 2020 , in their reports also claim that the participants, in fact, believed that alcohol consumption cured COVID-19 (Secosan et al. 2020 ; Almomani and Al-Qur’an 2020 ).

Based on the literature, even social media that play a significant role in disseminating true news about COVID-19 have also been linked to illness, because as platforms that help to spread public health messages to people, they also promote opinionated reporting. and concerns about the disease (Galea et al. 2020 ). In fact, the results pointed out in this review reveal that 36% of the authors showed that exposure to infodemic knowledge generated fear, panic, depression, stress, and anxiety in people interviewed through an online questionnaire. This is corroborated by a cross-sectional study carried out by Olagoke et al. ( 2020 ), that when evaluating 501 participants, the anxiety and depression score was related to news exposure in the traditional media, showing a prevalence of depressive symptoms and a greater perceived vulnerability, causing great psychological impact.

Our results indicate that different age groups have susceptibility to interact with the FN propagated by social media, especially in the elderly population. These results were also verified in a previous study by Guimarães et al. 2021 , who aimed to assess the population’s knowledge about COVID-19 and misinformation from an anonymous online survey and, with this, some parameters such as gender, education, and age were shown to be directly associated with a better perception of health issues in the context of the pandemic (Guimarães et al. 2021 ). The same was also seen by Hayat et al. 2020 , who explored the public’s understanding of the current situation of the COVID-19 from online forms and concluded that participants with ages ranging from 16 to 29 years obtained better scores than older participants (Hayat et al. 2020 ). Such a fact is associated with the digital media literacy of individuals primarily over the age of 60 who end up not reliably determining the trustworthiness of online news, thus needing to develop literacy competencies that encompass the types of skills needed to identify questionable content (Guess et al. 2019 ).

To understand the behavior of spreading rumors among the elderly population, our results show that most respondents (74.82%) negatively evaluated the dissemination of fake news, while 2.52% did not care anyway. Among them, the correlation between the spread of rumors and anxiety was negatively associated, as they influence the behavior and perception of the elderly to understand what a fact is and what is fake news. Research shows that individuals over 65 years share up to seven times more unverified information when compared to other age groups, often in order to feel useful, active, and connected (Guess et al. 2019 ). Certainly, psychological interventions are mainly recommended to vulnerable populations and health professionals (Van Der Linden et al. 2020 ).

Our results also showed that 36% of the authors reported that, regardless of age, it was possible for participants to experience fatigue, anguish, and psychological distress, in addition to having a higher probability of developing anxiety-related symptoms. This is contradicted in two previous studies by Huang and Zhao ( 2020 ) and Wang et al. ( 2020 ); when evaluating the psychological impact of the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19, they realized that the manifestations of anxiety and psychological outbreaks were more common especially in the younger population who used social networks for a longer time (Huang and Zhao 2020 ; Wang et al. 2020 ). On the other hand, pandemic uncertainty and confinement created considerable levels of stress in young people, especially women, in Switzerland (Mohler-Kuo et al. 2021 ). It was further shown that misinformation fueled by rumors and conspiracy theories led to physical harassment and violent attacks against healthcare professionals and people of Asian origin in 28% of the results shown in this review. This finding is in line with a study that shows that conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon, but they increase in times of crisis. Thus, people who believe in this “conspiracy world” are less likely to comply with social norms (Imhoff and Lamberty 2020 ).

The impact of denial and its association with fake news presents itself as a social phenomenon through the production of controversial theses to the scientific consensus (Duarte and César 2020 ). Good examples of denial content can be the emergence of the earthmoving movement, the global warming farce, and anti-vaccination discourses (Vasconcelos-Silva and Castiel 2020 ). With regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, denialism takes on an expression never seen before, in which the number of people who spread this news grows more and more, and therefore results in an increase in the number of deaths of the most vulnerable patients (Morel 2021 ).

Importantly, false information has been a genuine concern among social-media platforms and governments, which have implemented strategies to contain misinformation and fake news during the pandemic. Of the social-media platforms, in order to contain the advance of FNs, Facebook has implemented a new feature to inform users when they engage with unverified information (BBC 2020 ). Another way to counteract misinformation is to seek support and discuss actions that authorities or public agencies could take to mitigate the spread of conspiracy theories, and encourage users to flag inappropriate content to social-media companies (González-Padilla and Tortolero-Blanco 2020 ).

Social-media platforms have contributed to the spread of false news and conspiracy theories during the new coronavirus pandemic. When analyzing the phenomenon of fake news in health, it is possible to observe that infodemic knowledge is part of people’s lives around the world, causing distrust in Governments, researchers, and health professionals, which can directly impact people’s lives and health. When analyzing the potential risks of misinformation, panic, depression, fear, fatigue, and the risk of infection influence psychological distress and emotional overload. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the disposition to spread incorrect information or rumors is directly related to the development of anxiety in populations of different ages.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the CAPES and FUNCAP for the fellowships of Yasmim M Rocha and Gabriel A de Moura.

Author contributions

Yasmim Mendes Rocha: bibliographic research, concepts, methodology, writing, and data analysis. Gabriel Acácio de Moura: bibliographic research, methodology, revision, editing, and data analysis. Gabriel Alves Desidério: reading of included articles and review. Carlos Henrique de Oliveira: translation into English, reading of articles, and writing. Francisco Dantas Lourenço: article reading and review. Larissa Deadame de Figueiredo Nicolete: article idea, supervision, methodology, research, formal analysis, and editing.

This study was supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the Cearense Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development Support (FUNCAP).

Declarations

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This is a review article that has not been published before and is not being considered for publication anywhere. Authors confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that no other person has met the authorship criteria, but it is not listed. We further confirm that none of us have any conflict of interest to declare. We would like to thank you for your attention and the opportunity given to submit our study, and agree, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, to the transfer of all copyright to the Journal of Public Health .

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

• Ahmad AR, Murad HR. The impact of social media on panic during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraqi Kurdistan: online questionnaire study. J Medical Internet Res. 2020; 22 :e19556. doi: 10.2196/19556. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Aleinikov AV, Maltseva DA, Sunami AN. Information management of the risks and threats of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sci Tech Inf Process. 2020; 47 :200–206. doi: 10.3103/S0147688220030090. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Almomani H, Al-Qur’an W (2020) The extent of people's response to rumors and false news in light of the crisis of the Corona virus. Ann Med Psychol 178(7):684–689. 10.1016/j.amp.2020.06.011 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Apuke OD, Omar B. Fake news and COVID-19: modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users. Telemat Inform. 2021; 56 :101475. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2020.101475. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• BBC News (2020) Coronavirus: Facebook alters virus action after damning misinformation report (Joe Tidy, cyber-security reporter). https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52309094
• Choi EPH, Hui BPH, Wan EYF. Depression and anxiety in Hong Kong during COVID-19. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :3740–3750. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103740. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• CNN (2020) Nigeria records chloroquine poisoning after Trump endorses it for coronavirus treatment. Busari S, Adebayo B. CNN International, 23 March 2020. Available in: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/23/africa/chloroquine-trump-nigeria-intl/index.htm . February 21, 2021, date of last access
• Depoux A, Martin S, Karafillakis E, Preet R, Wilder-Smith A, Larson H (2020) The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak. J Travel Med 27(3):taaa031. 10.1093/jtm/taaa031 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Donato H, Donato M (2019) Stages for undertaking a systematic review. Acta Med Port 32: 227–235. 10.20344/amp.11923 [ PubMed ]
• Duarte AM, César MRA. Negação da política do negacionismo como política: Pandemia e democracia. Educ Realid. 2020; 45 :e109146. doi: 10.1590/2175-6236109146. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Duplaga M. The determinants of conspiracy beliefs related to the COVID-19 pandemic in a nationally representative sample of internet users. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :7818. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217818. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Eysenbach G. How to fight an infodemic: the four pillars of infodemic management. J Med Internet Res. 2020; 22 :e21820. doi: 10.2196/21820. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fernández-Torres MJ, Almansa-Martínez A, Chamizo-Sánchez R. Infodemic and fake news in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2021; 18 :1781. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041781. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Galea S, Merchant RM, Lurie N. The mental health consequences of COVID-19 and physical distancing: the need for prevention and early intervention. JAMA Intern Med. 2020; 180 :817–818. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1562. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• González-Padilla DA, Tortolero-Blanco L. Social media influence in the COVID-19 pandemic. Int Braz J Urol. 2020; 46 :120–124. doi: 10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2020.S121. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Guess A, Nagler J, Tucker J. Less than you think: prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook. Sci Adv. 2019; 5 :eaau4586. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau4586. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Guimarães V, Leandro M, Cassiano C, Marques A, Motta C, Silva A, Sousa M, Silveira L, Pardi T, Gazotto F, Silva M, Rodrigue V, Jr, Rodrigues W, Oliveira C. Knowledge about COVID-19 in Brazil: cross-sectional web-based study. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021; 7 :e24756. doi: 10.2196/24756. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hassanian-Moghaddam H, Zamani N, Kolahi A-A, McDonald R, Hovda KE. Double trouble: methanol outbreak in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran—a cross-sectional assessment. Crit Care. 2020; 24 :1–3. doi: 10.1186/s13054-020-03140-w. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hayat K, Rosenthal M, Xu S, Arshad M, Li P, Zhai P, Desalegn G, Fang Y. View of Pakistani residents toward coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a rapid outbreak: a rapid online survey. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :3347. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103347. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hua J, Shaw R. Corona virus (Covid-19)“infodemic” and emerging issues through a data lens: the case of China. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :2309. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17072309. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Huang Y, Zhao N. Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: a web-based cross-sectional survey. Psychiatry Res. 2020; 288 :112954. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112954. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Imhoff R, Lamberty P. A bioweapon or a hoax? The link between distinct conspiracy beliefs about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and pandemic behavior. Soc Psychol Personal Sci. 2020; 11 :1110–1118. doi: 10.1177/1948550620934692. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Islam AKMN, Laato S, Talukder S, Sutinen E. Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: an affordance and cognitive load perspective. Technol Forecast Soc Chang. 2020; 159 :120201. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120201. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jiang Y. Problematic social media usage and anxiety among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of academic burnout. Front Psicol. 2021; 12 :76–88. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.612007. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lima SO, Da Silva MA, Santos MLD, De Jesus CVF. Reflexão sobre o estado físico e mental dos profissionais de saúde em época de Covid-19. Interfaces Científicas-Saúde e Ambiente. 2020; 8 :142–151. doi: 10.17564/2316-3798.2020v8n2p142-151. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lin Y, Hu Z, Alias H, Wong LP. Influence of mass and social media on psychobehavioral responses among medical students during the downward trend of COVID-19 in Fujian, China: cross-sectional study. J Med Internet Res. 2020; 22 (7):e19982. doi: 10.2196/19982. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Methley AM, Campbell S, Chew-Graham C, McNally R, Cheraghi-Sohi S (2014) PICO, PICOS and SPIDER: a comparison study of specificity and sensitivity in three search tools for qualitative. BMC Health Serv Res 14:579. 10.1186/s12913-014-0579-0 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Mohler-Kuo M, Dzemaili S, Foster S, Werlen L, Walitza S. Stress and mental health among children/adolescents, their parents, and young adults during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2021; 18 :4668. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18094668. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Montesi M (2020) Understanding fake news during the Covid-19 health crisis from the perspective of information behaviour: the case of Spain. J Librariansh Inform Science 2020:0961000620949653. 10.1177/0961000620949653
• Morel A (2021) Negacionismo da Covid-19 e educação popular em saúde: para além da necropolítica. Trab Educ Saúde 19. 10.1590/1981-7746-sol00315
• Moscadelli A, Albora G, Biamonte MA, et al. Fake news and Covid-19 in Italy: results of a quantitative observational study. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :5850. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17165850. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Munster VJ, Koopmans M, Doremalen NV, Riel DV, Wit E. A novel coronavirus emerging in China—key questions for impact assessment. N Engl J Med. 2020; 382 :692–694. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2000929. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Naeem SB, Bhatti R, Khan A (2020) An exploration of how fake news is taking over social media and putting public health at risk. Health Inf Libr J 38(2):143–149. 10.1111/hir.12320 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Okechukwu EC, Tibaldi L, Torre GL (2020) The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of nurses. Clin Ter 171 (5):e399–e400. 10.7417/CT.2020.2247 [ PubMed ]
• Olagoke AA, Olagoke OO, Hughes AM. Exposure to coronavirus news on mainstream media: the role of risk perceptions and depression. Br J Health Psychol. 2020; 25 :865–874. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12427. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• PRISMA (2021) Prisma Statement. http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement. Access in: May 11,2021. systematic reviews. BMC Health Serv Res 14(1):1–10
• PROSPERO (2021) International prospective register of systematic reviews. University of York, York, UK. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ . Access 11 March 202
• Radwan E, Radwan A, Radwan W. The role of social media in spreading panic among primary and secondary school students during the COVID-19 pandemic: an online questionnaire study from the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Heliyon. 2020; 6 :e05807. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05807. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Roozenbeek J, Schneider CR, Dryhurst S, et al. Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world. Royal Soc Open Sci. 2020; 7 :201199. doi: 10.1098/rsos.201199. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ruiz-Frutos C, Ortega-Moreno M, Dias A, Bernardes JM, García-Iglesias JJ, Gómez-Salgado J. Information on COVID-19 and psychological distress in a sample of non-health workers during the pandemic period. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :6982. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17196982. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sallam M, Dababseh D, Yaseen A, et al. COVID-19 misinformation: Mere harmless delusions or much more? A knowledge and attitude cross-sectional study among the general public residing in Jordan. PLoS One. 2020; 15 (12):e0243264. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243264. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Santos MCS, Shimano SGN, Araújo LGO, Pereira K (2019) Application of Motor Development Scale: an integrative review. Revista CEFAC 21(4):1516–1846. 10.1590/1982-0216/20192149918
• Schmidt T, Cloete A, Davids A, Makola L, Zondi N, Jantjies M. Myths, misconceptions, othering and stigmatizing responses to Covid-19 in South Africa: a rapid qualitative assessment. PLoS One. 2020; 15 :e0244420. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244420. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Secosan I, Virga D, Crainiceanu ZP, Bratu LM, Bratu T. Infodemia: another enemy for Romanian frontline healthcare workers to fight during the COVID-19 outbreak. Medicina. 2020; 56 :679. doi: 10.3390/medicina56120679. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sun Z, Cheng X, Zhang R, Yang B. Factors influencing rumour re-spreading in a public health crisis by the middle-aged and elderly populations. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :6542. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186542. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Talwar S, Dhir A, Singh D, Virk GS, Salo J. Sharing of fake news on social media: application of the honeycomb framework and the third-person effect hypothesis. J Retail Consum Serv. 2020; 57 :102197. doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102197. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tangcharoensathien V, Calleja N, Nguyen T, et al. Framework for managing the COVID-19 infodemic: methods and results of an online, crowdsourced WHO technical consultation. J Med Inter Res. 2020; 22 :e19659. doi: 10.2196/19659. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tentolouris A, Ntanasis-Stathopoulos I, Vlachakis PK, Tsilimigras DI, Gavriatopoulou M, Dimopoulos MA (2021) COVID-19: time to flatten the infodemic curve. Clin Exp Med:1–5. 10.1007/s10238-020-00680-x [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ]
• Van Der Linden S, Roozenbeek J, Compton J. Inoculating against fake news about COVID-19. Front Psychol. 2020; 11 :2928. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566790. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Vasconcelos-Silva PR, Castiel LD. COVID-19, las fake news y el sueño de la razón comunicativa generando monstruos: el relato de los riesgos y los riesgos de los relatos. Cad Saúde Pública. 2020; 36 :e00101920. doi: 10.1590/0102-311X00101920. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang C, Pan R, Wan X, et al. Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. Int J Env Res Public Health. 2020; 17 :1729. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17051729. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• World Health Organization (2020) Novel Coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV): situation report, 3. 2020. World Health Organization, Geneva. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/330762 . February 20, 2021, date of last access

Supreme Court to decide if White House went too far fighting social media misinformation

The case grew out of concern from conservatives that their views were being suppressed about 2020 election fraud, covid-19 origins and treatments and other issues..

WASHINGTON − After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested without evidence that baseball legend Hank Aaron’s death in 2021 was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine, the Biden administration pounced.

“Wanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP,” the digital director for the White House’s COVID response team wrote in an email to an official at Twitter.

What the White House viewed as an effort to correct misinformation about a life-saving vaccine during a pandemic, critics called an example of a broad pressure campaign by the federal government to quash views it doesn’t like.

Now the Supreme Court is being asked what boundaries to set .

If the justices place too many restrictions on how the government can work with private social media companies in areas such as public health, election integrity and foreign interference, it could impede efforts to stop harmful misinformation, experts say.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

But if there aren’t enough guardrails, the government – whether a Democratic or Republican administration – could have too much power to influence debate in a public square dominated by social media.

“I think we need to figure out how to draw these lines more carefully in ways that protect legitimate speech from government suppression,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College who studies misperceptions about politics and health care. “But I'm concerned people are using that idea to try to shut down any kind of government information exchange with social media platforms, which I think could be harmful.”

Could the Supreme Court `destroy the internet'?

The Supreme Court takes up the issue Monday, three weeks after it heard challenges to laws passed by Florida and Texas to limit the ability of social media giants to regulate user content.

“This is the second major case in the last month in which the Supreme Court could destroy the internet, if it's not careful,” said James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell University. “They're unlikely to do that. But it's still a case in which they have to be very precise about what they say.”

Both cases grew out of concern from conservatives that their views were being suppressed about claims of 2020 election fraud, the origin of and treatments for COVID-19 and other issues, complaints that congressional Republicans have amplified with multiple hearings.

The GOP-controlled House last year passed legislation to prohibit federal employees from “advocating for censorship of viewpoints.” The bill , which has not advanced in the Democrat-controlled Senate, was a response to Twitter briefly blocking links to a  New York Post story  about  Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020.

Former Twitter executives denied last year that they were pressured by Democrats and law enforcement to suppress the story.  Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, who regularly communicated with the FBI about election security issues, testified at a congressional hearing that the agency was always careful “not to cross the line into advocating for Twitter to take any particular action.”

Lower courts sided with challengers

In the case before the Supreme Court Monday, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and numerous other federal officials are being sued by the Republican attorney generals in Missouri and Louisiana and by five social media users who said their posts or accounts were removed or downgraded.

Kennedy, who is running for president as an independent and contends in a filing “there may be no more individual in the country more heavily targeted for social media censorship by the federal government,” has a separate suit still working its way through the court system.

One of the challengers being represented on Monday, Jill Hines, co-director of the conservative Health Freedom Louisiana group, said the warnings she received from Facebook included one for sharing a screenshot of a Kennedy tweet and one for her post of a Daily Mail story headlined, “Face masks may raise risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline due to build-up of carbon dioxide, study warns.”

The study referenced included no evidence that masks cause serious health problems, according to PolitiFact , a nonpartisan factchecking site.

A district court in Louisiana sided with Hines and other challengers, imposing sweeping restrictions on the government’s interaction with social media platforms.

The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit narrowed the restraints but the Justice Department said they would still place unprecedented limits on how government officials can speak about matters of public concern, address national security threats or relay public health information.

The restrictions are on hold while the Supreme Court reviews the case.

Three justices have already criticized `government censorship'

Three of the court’s six conservative justices –Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch – wanted to reject the federal government’s appeal.

"Government censorship of private speech is antithetical to our democratic form of government, and therefore today’s decision is highly disturbing," Alito wrote when the court agreed to take the case.

The Justice Department argues public officials’ interaction with social media platforms was not coercive, nor did it involve “significant encouragement.” Government agencies “largely provided the platforms with information, leaving it up to the platforms to decide what action to take, if any,” the government’s lawyers wrote in a filing .

More: Mask mandates? Supreme Court rejects appeal from Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP lawmakers

Lawyers for some of the challengers say that unless what’s being shared is illegal – such as child pornography – the First Amendment doesn’t allow the government to mediate “between true speech and false speech.”

“It's not the government's role, and never has been the government's role, to be the truth police,” said Mark Chenoweth, president and chief legal officer of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. The group represents the infectious disease experts who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated lifting COVID-19 restrictions on lower-risk groups to promote "herd immunity."

Persuasion or coercion?

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said the Supreme Court needs to clarify the line between permissible persuasion and impermissible coercion – and must emphasize that applying that standard should include a full examination of the facts and context.

In Monday's case, for example, President Joe Biden’s public statement that social media companies were “killing people” by not sufficiently combatting misinformation about vaccines may have exerted public pressure but did not carry a retaliatory threat even if the word choice was provocative, according to the institute , which reviewed some of the charges.

The challengers’ objection to an internal email sent from a Biden COVID adviser to a Facebook official is trickier. Complaining that “100% of the questions I asked have never been answered and weeks have gone by,” the official wrote: “Internally we have been considering our options on what to do about it.”

The email sounded accusatory and demanding and could be read as an implicit threat of regulatory retaliation, according to the institute.

However the Supreme Court comes down in this case − and in its pending ruling on the Texas and Florida social media laws – the ramifications could be far-reaching.

Olivier Sylvain, an expert on communications law at Fordham University and a research fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute, called it a “special, maybe even once in a generation, opportunity to define how far governments may go to protect against the online distribution of lawful and unlawful harmful content.” 

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Jessica Guynn, John Kennedy of USA TODAY.

More: Supreme Court sounds skeptical of Texas and Florida laws to regulate social media

'Social Media Is Fake' Explained: What Trend Tells Us About Loneliness

I t's a trend that sees social media users share brutally honest snapshots of their lives, revealing the hidden truths behind their seemingly perfect posts. But the "Social Media is Fake" phenomenon is actually teaching us much more about society as a whole than we imagined––and there's harsh reality in the findings.

Having amassed 52.8 million views on TikTok , the powerful new trend has captured the attention and imagination of millions worldwide, and is rapidly gaining momentum as users across platforms share candid insights, experiences, and revelations about the curated realities often presented on social media.

Among the topics highlighted thanks to the trend, loneliness was identified as a significant issue, suggesting that despite the seemingly connected nature of online spaces, many people still grapple with feelings of isolation.

Content creator Imogen Horton told Newsweek that discussing her personal insecurities and aspects of her upbringing publicly felt therapeutic for her, but there's also a sense of sadness in what she shared.

On February 28, Horton, who uses the handle @imogenhorton, posted eight photos with a lengthy paragraph on each explaining some truths about herself. From the outside, she appears to be a confident woman, but deep down she is a "ball of anxiety" who hasn't got many friends. She explained that she has never had a best friend except her husband.

Speaking about her early 20s, she wrote: "I was lonely [and] I didn't know who I was." She continued: "I wasn't comfortable in my body or my skin."

In other slides, she spoke about her "perfect" family being torn apart due to a "toxic" divorce and severe bullying while at school. Her vulnerability has racked up almost 10,000 likes on Instagram .

The mom-of-two from Brighton and Hove, U.K. told Newsweek : "If I'm being completely honest, I don't think I could ever keep it all in. It's not in my nature, I'm an open book, I always have been.

"Sometimes that's too much for some people, but sometimes people love it and that's one thing I've realized lately––you're not everyone's cup of tea but I like coffee anyway! I love my openness and if a small amount or a large amount of people do too then that's just wonderful."

Alongside the "Social Media is Fake" hashtag, contributors to the movement share side-by-side comparisons of their lives as depicted on social media versus their actual unfiltered experiences.

But content creator Latoya (Fits) Okuneye took a different approach to the movement, instead sharing insights into what this trend of openness and vulnerability has taught her. Okuneye, a photographer, summarized the common themes she noticed.

In her video, which has 26,500 views, Okuneye said: "If there's anything I'm learning from this it's the lack of community that people actually have. I'm learning that people are deeply lonely.

"Capitalism doesn't care about children," she added, claiming the system fails to offer adequate support to parents, leaving many feeling isolated, burdened by debt and lonely.

This commentary taps into a broader conversation among parents, particularly mothers, who are using social media to share their experiences and challenges in parenthood. Many have joined this trend to discuss the struggles they face, including feelings of loneliness and self-doubt about their parenting abilities.

Okuneye told Newsweek : "The trend is a good thing, as intense as some of the things people are saying are, because it's exposing the state of a failed individualistic system we live in.

"Social media can be fake, but it also gives us a great insight into the lives of others and exposes deeper issues and patterns within our society."

However, she did issue participants with a warning.

"I believe people should be cautious and careful about the information they reveal about themselves because of general safety––like their location and the amount of debt they owe," she said.

Okuneye, from London, U.K., has been praised for making "very valid points" online.

Another user said: "Social media should be called antisocial. There's nothing social about social media. Because you're not being really social."

The role of platforms like Instagram and TikTok in shaping perceptions of life has been a double-edged sword. While they serve as outlets for sharing life's highlights and achievements, the impact on mental health, particularly among young users, has been a growing concern.

A recent study conducted by researchers at West Virginia University shed light on this issue. The results found that frequent use of certain platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter may pose a higher risk of depressive symptoms for some adolescents, emphasizing the need to consider individual differences and specific social media platforms in understanding mental health risks.

Newsweek spoke to consultant counselling psychologist Dr. Ritika Suk Birah about sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly on social media.

While Birah, who is also known as Dr. Ritz, believes the "Social Media is Fake" trend is a step in the right direction for a more authentic digital existence , she encourages users to "take it at face value."

"It's still a reel or photo that's been chosen," she told Newsweek. "You might not always get the full picture. I think breaking the barriers that life is not picture-perfect can be helpful, but my concern here would be vulnerable people oversharing in an unsafe way."

She encourages users to follow accounts and people that make you feel good so your feed is filled with posts that help you build up your self-worth.

"Use your time and energy to focus on that," said Dr. Ritz, from Leicestershire, U.K. "Think about disconnecting a bit more from the world of social media to live a present life where you can train yourself to be grateful for what you do have. It's very easy to focus on what we don't have and a fantasy to change those external factors."

If you have a personal dilemma, let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice on relationships, family, friends, money and work and your story could be featured on Newsweek 's "What Should I Do?" section.

Related Articles

• Three Times You Should Never Brush Your Teeth, According to a Dentist
• Why These Millennial Women Went Sober: 'It Was So Toxic'
• My Grandson Invited the In-Laws on Our Cruise—What Should I Do?

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial