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WhatsApp limits message forwarding to slow spread of coronavirus misinformation

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By Katie Paul

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False information spreads faster than true information

"False news spreads faster than truth online thanks to human nature"

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/08/false-news-spreads-faster-than-truth-online-thanks-to-human-nature/

The rapidity with which falsity travels has been proverbial for centuries: “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it,” wrote Swift in 1710.

“We have a very strong conclusion that the spread of falsity is outpacing the truth because human beings are more likely to retweet false than true news,” explained Sinan Aral, co-author of the paper.

Still, the results are robust and fairly straightforward: people just seem to spread false news faster.

It’s an unsatisfying answer, in a way, because people aren’t an algorithm or pricing model we can update, or a news outlet we can ignore. There’s no clear solution, the authors agreed — but that’s no reason why we shouldn’t look for one.

“There’s actually extensive study in human communications in why certain news spreads faster, not just a common sense understanding of it,” explained Deb Roy, the third co-author of the paper. “It’s well understood that there’s a bias to our sharing negative over positive news, and also a bias to sharing surprising over unsurprising news.”

If people are more likely to spread news that’s novel (which is “almost definitional,” Roy said) and also news that’s negative (the “if it bleeds, it leads” phenomenon), then all that remains to be seen is whether false news is more novel and more negative than true news.

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Oppression of the human rights and voice nothing less. That decision to not research information thoroughly should be up to the receiver. There is a lot of bogus and fake news out there, it takes time and patience to sift and prove it wrong but eventually you get the truth and gain a lot more knowledge.

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limited liability corporation

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