This week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress concerning the user profile leaks used by Cambridge Analytica to possibly sway the 2016 presidential election. This scandal along with fears way back during campaigning that fake news would help the election in Trump's favor have brought up the question of whether this false information did have anything to do with Trump's win last November. Studies have found that social media, especially Facebook, drove fake news to the forefront of consumers' timelines. Around 40% of visits to these fake news websites came from advertising on social media. It has also been found that fake news stories got more air time and online interaction than top hard news stories in the months leading up to the election. The studies also proved how willing humans are to convince themselves of things that are not true in order to uphold their beliefs. The impact of these fake news stories goes well beyond the 2016 election. It has the power to turn people away from politics (and therefore voting) and gives people entirely false ideas about the world around them.
Mudslinging was an early form of fake news in that it spread false truths about a person and persuaded many voters to belive them. This practice that began in the 1800's has progressed further and further up to today, where, in an election season, Americans can hardly turn on their television without seeing ads against a particular candidate. People closing their eyes to the truth to keep in line with their long-held beliefs was also a common occurence in the decades before the Civil War until the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin and in the Progressive Era when people ignored the terrible conditions in factories and the terrible phenomenon of child labor to keep alive the fantasy that America was perfect. This all just goes to show how one tiny thing so small as an ad on Facebook can cause a change so momentous as an entire presidential election.
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323233/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election
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