‘Killer of trust’: social media groups fuel misinformation in UK, report finds
The social media platform Facebook is one of several that U.K. leaders say must do more to combat fake news. An investigation by The Guardian reveals more than 4.4 million people live in ‘news deserts’ that lack dedicated local reporting with bad actors moving in to fill the void. Photo by Joel Goodman
The Guardian
Local social media groups are fueling misinformation in areas with no reliable sources of news, according to an investigation that reveals the scale of fake news flowing to vulnerable communities across Britain.
Misinformation was nearly three times more common in areas with little or no recognised local journalism, according to a study of tens of thousands of posts seen by the Guardian. Immigration and Islamophobia were the most common topics of misinformation across Facebook and X.
Spikes in misinformation were identified around local elections. Misinformation grew as a share of news posts by 56% in the run-up to polling day, compared with earlier in the year, from 8.2% of all news posts to 12.9%.
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