It’s Not Easy for Ordinary Citizens to Identify Fake News

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(This op-ed was first published in The Washington Post on April 7, 2020.)

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And fake coronavirus news is no exception.

Fake news makes up a relatively small portion of Americans’ news consumption, research has shown. Throughout 2016, the vast majority of U.S. Facebook users did not share any fake news articles. In the month leading up to the election, fake news sources only made up roughly 1 percent of the average Twitter user’s political news on the platform.

In 2020, however, even small amounts of fake news about coronavirus can have dire consequences. The current public health crisis requires the coordinated actions of individuals — maintaining social distance, buying reasonable quantities of food and supplies, and following the latest medical advice rather than bogus cures.

(Continue reading the op-ed on The Washington Post’s page here.)

Nathaniel Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center.

Zeve Sanderson is the executive director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics. Kevin Aslett is a postdoctoral researcher at the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics. Will Godel is a PhD student in NYU’s Department of Politics and a graduate research affiliate of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics. Jonathan Nagler is a professor of politics at NYU and co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics. Richard Bonneau is a professor of biology and computer science at NYU and co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics.