Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, played outsized roles in the dissemination of “fake news” during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Since then, studies identifying and proposing ways to combat fake news have proliferated among lawyers, social scientists, and business leaders. An emerging consensus in this inchoate discussion is that, though imperfect, a combination of algorithmic flagging, crowd-sourcing, and market-based solutions that constrain the incentives to create fake news in the first place offer the most promise. These solutions are likely to come up short. That is because, as I argue, the problem is designed in. Relying on social science research on information diffusion and cascades, this paper offers an experimental model to explain the interaction between fake news and social networks and shows that the spread of fake news on social network platforms is a designed-in aspect of the platforms themselves. That is, Facebook has designed its platform in ways that make the efficient spread of fake news inevitable. Social media platforms thus bear some responsibility for it, and its detrimental effects on society. As such, leaving changes up to the goodwill of platforms themselves is futile. This creates an opportunity for both grassroots and legal interventions.