Editing Disinformation (section)

=== Consequences of exposure to disinformation online ===
There is a broad consensus amongst scholars that there is a high degree of disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda online; however, it is unclear to what extent such disinformation has on political attitudes in the public and, therefore, political outcomes.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Tucker|first1=Joshua|last2=Guess|first2=Andrew|last3=Barbera|first3=Pablo|last4=Vaccari|first4=Cristian|last5=Siegel|first5=Alexandra|last6=Sanovich|first6=Sergey|last7=Stukal|first7=Denis|last8=Nyhan|first8=Brendan|date=2018|title=Social Media, Political Polarization, and Political Disinformation: A Review of the Scientific Literature|journal=SSRN Working Paper Series|url=https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3144139|doi=10.2139/ssrn.3144139|issn=1556-5068|access-date=29 October 2019|archive-date=21 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221202942/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3144139|url-status=live}}</ref> This [[conventional wisdom]] has come mostly from investigative journalists, with a particular rise during the 2016 U.S. election: some of the earliest work came from Craig Silverman at Buzzfeed News.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook|title=This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook|website=BuzzFeed News|date=16 November 2016|access-date=2019-10-29|archive-date=17 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717155014/https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook|url-status=live}}</ref> Cass Sunstein supported this in ''#Republic,'' arguing that the internet would become rife with [[echo chamber (media)|echo chambers]] and informational cascades of misinformation leading to a highly polarized and ill-informed society.<ref>{{Cite book|title=#Republic : divided democracy in the age of social media|last=Sunstein, Cass R.|isbn=978-0691175515|location=Princeton|oclc=958799819|date=14 March 2017|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/republi_sun_2017_00_0042}}</ref>

Research after the 2016 election found:  (1) for 14 percent of Americans social media was their "most important" source of election news; 2) known false news stories "favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared 8 million times"; 3) the average American adult saw fake news stories, "with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them"; and 4) people are more likely to "believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Allcott|first1=Hunt|last2=Gentzkow|first2=Matthew|date=May 2017|title=Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election|journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives|language=en|volume=31|issue=2|pages=211–236|doi=10.1257/jep.31.2.211|s2cid=32730475|issn=0895-3309|doi-access=free}}</ref> Correspondingly, whilst there is wide agreement that the digital spread and uptake of disinformation during the 2016 election was massive and very likely facilitated by foreign agents, there is an ongoing debate on whether all this had any actual effect on the election. For example, a double blind randomized-control experiment by researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE), found that exposure to online fake news about either Trump or Clinton had no significant effect on intentions to vote for those candidates. Researchers who examined the influence of Russian disinformation on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential campaign found that exposure to disinformation was (1) concentrated among a tiny group of users, (2) primarily among Republicans, and (3) eclipsed by exposure to legitimate political news media and politicians. Finally, they find "no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Eady|first1=Gregory|last2=Paskhalis|first2=Tom|last3=Zilinsky|first3=Jan|last4=Bonneau|first4=Richard|last5=Nagler|first5=Jonathan|last6=Tucker|first6=Joshua A.|date=2023-01-09|title=Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency Foreign Influence Campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US Election and its Relationship to Attitudes and Voting Behavior|journal=Nature Communications|volume=14|issue=62|page=62 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-35576-9|pmid=36624094 |pmc=9829855 |bibcode=2023NatCo..14...62E |doi-access=free}}</ref> As such, despite its mass dissemination during the 2016 Presidential Elections, online fake news or disinformation probably did not cost Hillary Clinton the votes needed to secure the presidency.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leyva |first1=Rodolfo |title=Testing and unpacking the effects of digital fake news: on presidential candidate evaluations and voter support |journal=AI & Society |date=2020 |volume=35 |issue=4 |page=970 |doi=10.1007/s00146-020-00980-6 |s2cid=218592685 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Research on this topic remains inconclusive, for example, misinformation appears not to significantly change political knowledge of those exposed to it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Allcott|first1=Hunt|last2=Gentzkow|first2=Matthew|date=May 2017|title=Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election|journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives|volume=31|issue=2|pages=211–236|doi=10.1257/jep.31.2.211|issn=0895-3309|doi-access=free}}</ref> There seems to be a higher level of diversity of news sources that users are exposed to on Facebook and Twitter than conventional wisdom would dictate, as well as a higher frequency of cross-spectrum discussion.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bakshy|first1=E.|last2=Messing|first2=S.|last3=Adamic|first3=L. A.|date=2015-06-05|title=Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook|journal=Science|volume=348|issue=6239|pages=1130–1132|doi=10.1126/science.aaa1160|pmid=25953820|issn=0036-8075|bibcode=2015Sci...348.1130B|s2cid=206632821|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wojcieszak|first1=Magdalena E.|last2=Mutz|first2=Diana C.|date=2009-03-01|title=Online Groups and Political Discourse: Do Online Discussion Spaces Facilitate Exposure to Political Disagreement?|journal=Journal of Communication|volume=59|issue=1|pages=40–56|doi=10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01403.x|s2cid=18865773 |issn=0021-9916}}</ref> Other evidence has found that disinformation campaigns rarely succeed in altering the foreign policies of the targeted states.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Lanoszka|first=Alexander|date=2019|title=Disinformation in international politics|journal=European Journal of International Security|volume=4|issue=2|pages=227–248|doi=10.1017/eis.2019.6|s2cid=211312944|issn=2057-5637}}</ref>

Research is also challenging because disinformation is meant to be difficult to detect and some social media companies have discouraged outside research efforts.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Shu|first1=Kai|last2=Sliva|first2=Amy|last3=Wang|first3=Suhang|last4=Tang|first4=Jiliang|last5=Liu|first5=Huan|date=2017-09-01|title=Fake News Detection on Social Media: A Data Mining Perspective|url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3137597.3137600|journal=ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter|volume=19|issue=1|pages=22–36|doi=10.1145/3137597.3137600|arxiv=1708.01967|s2cid=207718082|issn=1931-0145|access-date=1 February 2022|archive-date=5 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205204457/https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3137597.3137600|url-status=live}}</ref>  For example, researchers found disinformation made "existing detection algorithms from traditional news media ineffective or not applicable...[because disinformation] is intentionally written to mislead readers...[and] users' social engagements with fake news produce data that is big, incomplete, unstructured, and noisy."<ref name=":2" />  Facebook, the largest social media company, has been criticized by [[Analytic journalism|analytical journalists]] and scholars for preventing outside research of disinformation.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Edelson|first1=Laura|last2=McCoy|first2=Damon|title=How Facebook Hinders Misinformation Research|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-facebook-hinders-misinformation-research/|access-date=2022-02-01|website=Scientific American|language=en|archive-date=2 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202025821/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-facebook-hinders-misinformation-research/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Edelson|first1=Laura|last2=McCoy|first2=Damon|date=2021-08-14|title=Facebook shut down our research into its role in spreading disinformation|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/14/facebook-research-disinformation-politics|access-date=2022-02-01|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=24 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324171518/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/14/facebook-research-disinformation-politics|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Krishnan|first1=Nandita|last2=Gu|first2=Jiayan|last3=Tromble|first3=Rebekah|last4=Abroms|first4=Lorien C.|date=2021-12-15|title=Research note: Examining how various social media platforms have responded to COVID-19 misinformation|url=https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/research-note-examining-how-various-social-media-platforms-have-responded-to-covid-19-misinformation/|journal=Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review|language=en-US|doi=10.37016/mr-2020-85|s2cid=245256590|doi-access=free|access-date=1 February 2022|archive-date=3 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203040557/https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/research-note-examining-how-various-social-media-platforms-have-responded-to-covid-19-misinformation/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Only Facebook knows the extent of its misinformation problem. And it's not sharing, even with the White House.|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/19/facebook-data-sharing-struggle/|access-date=2022-02-01|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=5 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205042625/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/19/facebook-data-sharing-struggle/|url-status=live}}</ref>