“Virginia is eliminating advanced high-school math courses.” “Donald Trump tried to impeach Mike Pence.” “President Biden is passing a bill forcing all Americans to cut out red meat.”
These headlines were among the many circulating on social media over the last few months. Each of the articles was found to contain misinformation – i.e. misleading information or arguments, often aiming to influence (a subset of) the public. Articles containing misinformation were also among the most viral content, with “falsehoods diffusing significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information” (Vosoughi et al. 2018). There are increasing concerns that misinformation propagated on social media is further polarising the electorate and undermining democratic discourse.
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Source: Misinformation on social media | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal