Fake news gets more engagement on Facebook — but only if it's right-wing
Far-right pages that publish misinformation get the most interactions by far compared to other news sources, new research shows.
According to researchers at the Cybersecurity for Democracy project at New York University, far-right purveyors of misinformation have by far the highest levels of engagement per follower compared to any other category of news source. Indeed, the researchers found that while left-leaning and centrist publications get much less engagement if they publish misinformation, the relationship is reversed on the far right, where news organizations that regularly publish false material get up to 65 percent more engagement than ones that don’t. The study provides perhaps the most substantial evidence yet about what types of news — and fake news — perform best according to this metric on Facebook.
