The misinfo tidal wave grows

Traction Gains among Junk Sites

Many people complain about “fake news” but few know that it is being quantified. We are seeing a large uptick in the web content and the discussions (shares) that follow among extremists and purveyors of misinformation.

The hit volume among the various misinformation sites gained heavily in 2020. News Guard does the tracking and it found increases among Daily Wire by 250%; on Bongino pages by 1700%. The source of posts on social media are increasingly coming from unreliable sources. From 8% in 2019 to 19% in 2020.

The other tracking firm NewsWhip found overall interactions among the top 100 news site gained significantly. Given the shenanigans in Washington, no wonder! But in comparing sites, it found that the lower quality sites (less review, poor editing, personal opinions), volume increased the most.

One of the main fallacies, born I think in the stance for news fairness, is that both the Right and the Left are screaming their positions. No. Those on the Right are doing it a lot more. The numbers prove this out. Facebook super-spreaders were predominantly from the right-wing movements, including pages like Gateway Pundit, Viral Patriot and MAGA Revolution. See this report at https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-report-election-misinformation/