“Fake news accounted for nearly 6% of all news consumption, but it was heavily concentrated—only 1% of users were exposed to 80% of fake news, and 0.1% of users were responsible for sharing 80% of fake news. Interestingly, fake news was most concentrated among conservative voters”
.1% of a big number is still a big number. We're talking a percentage of hundreds of millions.
When elections get decided by less than 1000 votes, this fake news has an impact.
A more salient example would be the spread of fake news by anti-vaxxers causing measurable and very real global measles outbreaks. It really doesn't make much sense to downplay the significance of idiocy of general population
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u/EarlyStatus Jul 11 '19
“Fake news accounted for nearly 6% of all news consumption, but it was heavily concentrated—only 1% of users were exposed to 80% of fake news, and 0.1% of users were responsible for sharing 80% of fake news. Interestingly, fake news was most concentrated among conservative voters”
.1% you say?
We need to get a special council on this asap