Facebook’s fake news: ‘post-truth’ is the word

Last year Oxford Dictionaries declared that the word which best described ‘the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015’ was in fact an emoji — specifically the ‘face with tears of joy emoji’.

But 2016 has been a very different year. After a divisive referendum in Britain and an explosive election in America, this year’s top word is ‘post-truth’. According to Oxford, its usage rose by 2000% as people tried to understand the new political landscape. The trend has been fuelled by ‘social media as a news source’ and a ‘growing distrust of facts offered up by the establishment.’

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has spent all week fighting off criticisms over this very subject. Since Donald Trump’s victory, his shocked opponents have been searching for answers. How could a man who so frequently lies be elected president?

One possible explanation? Fake news on Facebook.

Almost half of American adults get their news from the site. The problem with this is that its algorithm promotes the stories with the most ‘engagement’ without checking if they are true. During the election, hundreds of fake news sites exploited this by writing outlandish stories about the candidates. Buzzfeed found that 38% of stories shared on three popular right-wing Facebook groups were fake, plus 19% of stories on three left-wing groups.

Our brains are wired to believe stories which confirm our own opinions — and so thousands shared stories about Pope Francis endorsing Trump (which never happened), or Trump calling Republicans the ‘dumbest group of voters’ in 1998 (which he did not do).

The result of all this, say some, is that voters do not just disagree about politics any more — they disagree on truth itself.

Welcome to the ‘post-truth’ world.

Mark Zuckerberg says it is ‘a pretty crazy idea’ to say that Facebook influenced the election. But ‘dozens’ of his employees have anonymously admitted that they are concerned. Meanwhile, Google has announced that it will try to curb the profit that can be earned from fake news.

Pants on fire

This can’t go on, say some. Facebook must stop fake news stories from spreading so quickly. The rest of us must try to heal society’s divisions and break out of our own echo chambers. Facts are the lifeblood of democracy. But in the post-truth age, all that matters is what you feel to be the truth. That will not end well.

Calm down, say others. The losers of the election are hysterically declaring a ‘post-truth’ age because they cannot possibly understand how anyone could disagree with them. To dismiss half the population as uninformed, emotional conspiracy theorists with no grip on reality is extremely patronising — and it does nothing to ‘heal divisions’.