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The Twitter app Richard James Mendoza/NurPhoto via Getty Images

False information travels much faster than the truth on Twitter

Falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted than the truth, new research has found.

FALSE INFORMATION SPREADS faster and reaches more people than the truth on Twitter, according to new research.

Researchers at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a non-profit organisation, examined how verified true and false news stories spread on Twitter between 2006 and 2017.

The data they analysed included in the region of 126,000 stories tweeted by three million people more than 4.5 million times. The stories were designated as true or false based on six independent fact-checking organisations.

In particular, they looked at the likelihood that a tweet would create a “cascade” of retweets. False information spread significantly further and faster than the truth across all categories of information, the researchers found.

Overall, falsehoods were 70% more likely to be retweeted than the truth. The top 1% of false information cascades routinely spread to between 1,000 and 100,000 people, whereas the truth rarely spread to more than 1,000 people.

Of the various types of false news, political content spread the quickest – at three times the rate of other false news topics. The report also found that “novel” information was more likely to be retweeted.

The term ‘fake news’ has in recent times become part of the lexicon of many people, thanks in part to US President Donald Trump regularly using it – often when referring to reports that are accurate but critical of him or his administration.

Intelligence agencies in the US have accused Russia of helping spread fake news stories during the 2016 US presidential election with a view to helping Trump get elected, something the country has denied.

Emotional aspect

In assessing the emotional content of tweets, researchers found that false stories inspired fear, disgust and surprise in replies, whereas true stories inspired anticipation, sadness, joy and trust.

When the authors of the report used an algorithm to remove bots from their analysis, the results suggest that humans play a greater role than robots do in the dissemination of false information.

In a related study about fake news, carried out at Northeastern University in Boston, the authors highlighted the fact that people often prefer to believe and share information that supports their own preexisting views, exacerbating the problem.

To address the issue of false information, researchers have recommended that people be empowered to evaluate the fake news they encounter.

They also want structural changes that aim to prevent the spread of fake news, calling for an interdisciplinary research effort that involves various social media platforms.

Read: Trump blames Democrats and Obama for failing to stop Russian election meddling

Read: UK warns foreign states over Russian ex-spy’s suspected poisoning

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    Mute Peter O' Connor
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    Mar 11th 2018, 7:04 AM

    Jonathan Swift already on the case’Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect’ (1710)

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    Mute Christy Nolan
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    Mar 11th 2018, 10:38 AM

    @Peter O’ Connor:
    The truth (real news) is not being published by Pravda and Dinny media.
    One of the biggest stories which is being ignored is the scandal surrounding the newly built Kildare school that cannot be opened because it could collapse resulting in possible fatalities. Kildare FG County Councillor, Fiona McLoughlin Healy, has spilled the beans but the media are only concentrating on half the story in order to protect their FG Councillors from fraud charges

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    Mute John Campbell
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    Mar 11th 2018, 6:56 AM

    In the world of spin doctors paid for by Governments, local authorities, County Councils, State Bodies, large corporate bodies , and many more, fake news spreads as fast as any other means.

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    Mute Christy Nolan
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    Mar 11th 2018, 10:22 AM

    @John Campbell:
    You neglected to include RTE, INM and the journal in selling FFG fake news.
    Does Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) ring a bell?

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    Mute Jeffrey McMahon
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    Mar 11th 2018, 9:11 AM

    Of course it does. Just look how viral the wage gap has gone and compare it to how viral the debunk has gone. Wage gap idea has spread so much faster and wider that other media publications keep referencing it as if it were real even when those same publications have published the debunk themselves. It’s like an annoying hydra of misinformation.

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    Mute TellingItAsItIs
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    Mar 11th 2018, 8:13 AM

    There’s only one thing that travels faster than false news and that’s bad news. The modern day human is either incredibly paranoid or incredibly gullible…or both.

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    Mute Moccy Fondoo
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    Mar 11th 2018, 10:04 AM

    ironic, – coming from the Journal.ie. whose left wing, socialist propaganda and corresponding brutal comment censorship is the worst kind of falsehood…(half the truth is the worst kind of lie…)
    Bizarrely, they also refuse to criticise our domestic, right wing, Fascist party, FG.
    but that’s probably a Dobbo thing…

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    Mute Marcia Craine
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    Mar 11th 2018, 8:24 AM

    Ahh but Is this fake news? The journal just wanting to go viral?

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    Mute Paul Mc Manus
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    Mar 11th 2018, 8:19 AM

    That’s bulls**t. I read that 112% of Tweets are true and only 23.7% of Tweets are false. So I’m 104% sure it’s real. You can’t argue against math.

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    Mute Austin Rock
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    Mar 11th 2018, 9:42 AM

    So what?

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Mar 11th 2018, 9:52 AM

    Standard news is also much slower than Reddit

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    Mute Walt Jabsco
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    Mar 11th 2018, 11:04 AM

    @Shawn O’Ceallaghan:
    Precisely because it needs to be verified before it can be published whereas anyone can post any old shite on reddit.

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    Mute Michael Knight
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    Mar 13th 2018, 11:03 AM

    ha

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    Mute Tom Gleeson
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    Mar 11th 2018, 6:57 PM

    So that’s why I get so few retweets.

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