网络谣言为何如此盛行.doc

网络谣言为何如此盛行
The Truth Can
Be Very Hard
to Discern
If you get your news from social media, you are exposed to a daily dose of hoaxes, rumors, conspiracy2) theories and misleading news. When it’s all mixed in with reliable information from honest sources, the truth can be very hard to discern.
In fact, my research team’s analysis of data from Columbia University’s Emergent rumor tracker suggests that this misinformation is just as likely to go viral as reliable information.
As a researcher on the spread of misinformation through social media, I know that limiting news fakers’ ability to sell ads, as recently announced by Google and Facebook, is a step in the right direction. But it will not curb abuses driven by political motives.
About 10 years ago, my colleagues and I ran an experiment in which we learned 72 percent of college students trusted links that appeared to originate from friends―even to the point of entering personal login information on phishing3) sites. This widespread vulner
ability suggested another form of malicious4) manipulation: People might also believe misinformation they receive when clicking on a link from a social contact.
To explore that idea, I created a fake web page with random, computer-generated gossip new―things like “Celebrity X caught in bed with Celebrity Y!” Visitors to the site who searched for a name would trigger5) the script to automatically fabricate a story about the person. I included on the site a disclaimer6), saying the site contained meaningless text and made-up “facts.” I also placed ads on the page. At the end of the month, I got a check in the mail with earnings from the ads. That was my proof: Fake news could make money by polluting the with falsehoods.
Sadly, I was not the only one with this idea. Ten years later, we have an industry of fake news and digital misinformation. Clickbait7) sites manufacture hoaxes to make money from ads, while so-called hyperpartisan8) sites publish and spread