Yellow Jackets protest movement led to ‘explosion’ of false and misleading news
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France’s Yellow Jackets protest movement led to an explosion of false or misleading news items circulating on Facebook, with posts shared some 4 million times over a five-month period, according to a study of social media activity during the protests.
The analysis, carried out by researchers for the Avaaz activist network, showed that the top 100 false posts flagged by fact-checkers had been viewed a total of 105 million times on the social network over the period, which stretched from November last year to this month.
The study also underscored the unparalleled popularity of RT coverage of the movement on YouTube, with video posts produced by the Kremlin-backed news outlet gathering more than 20 million views on the Google-owned platform — more than twice as many views as Le Monde, L’Obs, France 24, Le Figaro and LeHuffPost combined.
According to Christoph Schott, who coordinated the research together with Luca Nicotra, the results show how “lies” designed to grab attention spread much further on platforms than factual reporting, facilitated by algorithms that encourage users to share and engage with popular content.
“It’s easier to tell lies than truth in a very compelling manner,” said Schott. “It’s much harder to come up with a factual headline that goes viral than a false one, and the people who are producing this stuff know what they are doing — they use the platform to create viral effects.”
