'Junk news' gets massive engagement on Facebook ahead of EU elections, study finds

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'Junk news' gets massive engagement on Facebook ahead of EU elections

Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Imagesas articles from legitimate sources in the run up to European elections, according to a study from Oxford University.by the Oxford Internet Institute, said individual so-called "junk news" stories got up to four times as many shares, likes and comments as content from reputable sources.

"Most viral junk news stories in our data set revolved around controversial political issues such as immigration and security rather than focusing directly on European politics.", by contrast, researchers said junk news appeared much less prevalent, with less than 4% of news content shared on the microblogging site coming from less trustworthy sources. In Poland, however, the level of junk news in circulation was higher at 21%.

Twitter declined to comment on the study. Facebook was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC. Facebook for example recently set up an operations room in Dublin to monitor online disinformation and election interference, similar to the widely publicized "Twitter meanwhile publishes biannual transparency reports to show how its tackling attempts to manipulate the platform.

 

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