Did Fake News Sites Impact the Election?
Nov 25, 2016
It was recently reported that people are starting to blame fake news sites for Trumps win in the latest election, which has resulted in Facebook having questions to answer from many angry protesters! Fake news sites are able to display across pages like Facebook by using ads, resulting in people thinking what they are reporting is true. Some stories have had huge amounts of shares on Facebook and rank high in Googles SEO standings because of this. Mark Zuckerberg has largely dismissed the notion, but is taking steps to try to restrict the stories being posted.
Fake news sites work by getting revenue from clicks and likes, so they will do literally anything to gain them, including posting shocking headlines that of course are far from the truth. However, because of them being so prominent on sites such as Facebook, people have started to misconstrue them as the truth.
Some of the most outrageous stories that have come out of this election include that the pope endorsed Donald Trump and that the Clintons had committed murder! Therefore it’s understandable why people may believe these have swayed the vote. We have done some digging and here are what we consider to be the top five worst fake news stories of the 2016 election (so far!)
Hilary Clinton beats Bill night after the election!
This is probably one of the most outrageous fake news stories on the internet from the election, but considering that it was posted after Trumps win, it couldn’t have impacted the vote.
Nonetheless, it could have an effect on Hilary Clinton’s reputation if people were to believe it, and we’re sure she won’t be too happy about that!
Taylor Swift shocks music industry: ‘I voted for Trump.’
Stories like this may not seem hugely important in the grand scheme of thing, but Taylor Swift has over 74 million likes on Facebook so a story like this being shared could have impacted on the way people voted.
Fans are easily led by those they look up to and if they heard that their favourite pop star was voting for Trump, they may have been convinced to follow suit and do the same!
The pope endorses Trump
In July it was reported that the pope had made the unprecedented decision to endorse Trump in the election. As well as this, the news site even posted a statement supposedly from the pope himself claiming the FBI is corrupt and mocking Clinton.
Stories like this could have hugely swayed the way people voted in the election if they believed it to be true and the article was shared nearly 100,000 times on Facebook so a lot of people would have seen it.
Trump wins the popular vote!
Many fake news stories emerged as the election was taking place claiming that Trump had won the popular vote as well as the Electoral College vote; what actually happened was that Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of over a million.
Although stories like these couldn’t have swayed the way the vote went like campaigners are claiming, it will have influenced people’s reaction on the day.
Ireland accepting Trump refugees from America
This article suggested that alongside Canada, a small Island off the coast of Ireland has also started accepting American refugees who are seeking asylum from a Trump presidency. Now, not only has Canada done nothing of the sort, this island would have absolutely no say on Irelands immigration policy!
This story really is as crazy as it sounds, but it has been shared over 800,000 times so far on Facebook alone; that’s a lot of people being influenced!
So although some of these stories might seem ludicrous and hard to believe, some fake news sites posting convincing evidence - like statements from the pope - do have an impact on viewers. Google and Facebook are both working to try to prevent these types of stories appearing on their pages, but there is no easy fix for this problem as much as they try to block their advertising.
If you want to be as popular as these fake news stories are on social media, we would be happy to help! Just click here to be directed to our contact form or a direct email and phone number.
Add Pingback