We made deceptive robots to see why fake news spreads, and found a weakness
Fake news is an effective way to disrupt the discussion about an issue, writes Carlo Knopp and Kevin Korb in this crossposting from The Conversation, but there is a way to wipe this type of misinformation out.
Only a small amount of fake news is needed to disrupt any debate or discussion on an issue, according to research published today in PLOS ONE.
But there is a way to discourage those spreading fake news, and even to wipe it out altogether.
The research is experimental, based on modelling and simulations, but it does at least show that it is possible to counter the spread of misinformation.
