Lies spread fast on Facebook. Once they do, it’s nearly impossible to change anyone's mind.
The accusation that Jade Helm, a U.S. military training exercise, was the beginning of a civil war originated on Facebook. Conspiracy theories about ebola, autism, and global warming all thrive on the world’s largest social network. Facebook feeds are filled with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. And even though many thousands of attempts have been made to debunk them, those efforts are mostly futile, according to new European research that studied 54 million American Facebook users over a five-year period.
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are fertile ground for misinformation, the researchers found, because the websites cultivate powerful echo chambers that not only amplify falsehoods but also aggressively resist any attempts to correct them.
Researchers looked at nearly 50,000 posts debunking false information and found that most of them were wasted efforts. In fact, the people most likely to respond to factual debunkings on Facebook were the most committed conspiracy theorists. When a debunker comes along, the conspiracy theorists often react negatively. The debunking often achieves the opposite of the intended effect.
"So you say if I drove around Harlem at night, I could be at Eddie Murphy's house?"
Frank! I'm doing a post.
"Well, excuse me money bags. But I was discussing some very important business opportunities here with miss Scleroso here.
You did that on purpose! Now I have to finish this before you ruin it any more than it is.
My name is Lou Finkle and this was my Conspiracy Theory...how did she get here, Frank?
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