Fake news inside ideological social media echo chambers

The aim of this study is to explore the role of echo chambers in the spread of fake news on social media. On one hand, personalized content increases engagement, satisfaction, and online social interactions, as it matches users’ tastes and preferences. On the other hand, it excludes potentially interesting content and interactions with numerous other users generating a closed communication circuit. By employing a case study method, and with the use of confirmation bias, we focus on the “Digital Technology and the Resurrection of Trust” report that was prepared and published by the House of Lords Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technologies. Our proposed findings, following a thematic analysis, center around four themes; literacy failures, algorithmic bias, messaging content and purpose, and moderation and intervention failures. The study enriches our understanding of information processing online. It also offers implications on social media use and amplification of confirmation bias on political discourses, while proposing future research avenues.