Technology Desk: A new study is coming up that misinformation on Facebook gets six times more engagement than real news.
The US daily Washington Post recently published a report based on the research of Gronob Alp at New York University in the United States and the University of France. According to the report, from August 2020 to January 2021, researchers have searched the Facebook pages of more than two and a half thousand news publishers.
Researchers have found that pages that constantly publish incorrect information receive more likes, shares, and comments. This extended engagement has also been seen in the political arena. “Right-wing publishers are more likely to share misleading information than other political groups,” the study said.
The study will be presented in November as part of this year’s Internet Measurement Conference. However, researcher Laura Edelson said the study could be published earlier.
According to a Facebook spokesperson, the study was conducted only on engagement, not on ‘Rich’. Facebook shows how many users are watching the content through ‘Rich’.
However, the organization does not provide data on Rich to researchers. Researchers use the Crowd Tangle, a Facebook-owned tool, to understand and measure the social media’s misinformation problem.
But in August, Facebook stopped giving the research team access to the data. The reason given by the organization was that continuing researchers’ access to data could violate an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook came to an agreement with FTC. However, immediately after the claim of Facebook, FTC said, that information is not correct.
