More than 80 percent of 700,000 Twitter accounts that specialized in spreading misinformation and conspiracy reports during the 2016 US election remain active today, according to a report by the Knight Foundation and George Washington University on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2018) More than 80 percent of 700,000 Twitter accounts that specialized in spreading misinformation and conspiracy reports during the 2016 US election remain active today, according to a report by the Knight Foundation and George Washington University on Thursday.
"'Fake news' and disinformation continue to reach millions," the report stated: "More than 80 percent of accounts that repeatedly spread misinformation during the 2016 election campaign are still active, and they continue to publish more than a million tweets on a typical day."
The report offers a glimpse of the prevalence fake and misleading news as the US prepares to elect a new House of Representatives and one-third of the US Senate in November.
The report is based on a study of more than 10 million tweets from 700,000 Twitter accounts that linked to more than 600 misinformation and conspiracy news outlets.
The problem persisted in the aftermath of the election with 4 million tweets linked to fake and conspiracy news publishers found from mid-March to mid-April 2017, the report explained.
