How does fake news spread? Nicolas Vanderbiest, Social Media Expert, Belgium & Alexandre Alaphilippe, Executive Director, EU DisinfoLab

1. www.disinfo.eu
@DisinfoEU @DisinfoEU_IT
Masterclass
Rumours and Disinformation
spread on social media

3. « 30 % of the Macron’s campaign is funded by Saudi Arabia? We demand transparency »
The rumor side
The negation side

4. Invisible
attacks

5. Insincere
accounts

6. What could
be done?

7. #MacronLeaks20:49
23:01
23:11
00:28
23:50
23:34
Last official Macron’s
team tweet before the
curfew was quoting our
work to be sure the fake
news is debunked.

8. The impact of fighting fake news
as they are being spread
10:30pm, Friday 5 may 2017 Midnight, Friday 5 may 2017

9. Foreign influence &
Facebook black box

10. Impact on
emergency services

11. Methodology
To run this comparison, we collected data on three
major events involving emergency services:
Paris attacks
November 13th
2015
Nice attack
July 14th
2016 Crowd movement in
Juan Les Pins
August 14th
2016

12. Rumors/Hearsays evolve
in order to survive

13. Mechanisms
0,00%
5,00%
10,00%
15,00%
20,00%
25,00%
30,00%
35,00%
40,00%
45,00%
Rumour
Attribution
Comment
Questionnement
Mise en garde
SurspécificationConspiracy/Plot
Justification
Critique
Doute
Denial
Rumour (9,4%) : Rumours are
repeated without attribution and look
like facts
Attribution (23,6%) : Rumours are
repeated with attribution to the source
Conspiracy/Plot (0,1%) : Rumours are
inserted in conspiracy narratives
Denial (44,8%) : Rumours are denied.
Criticism
Doubt
Addition of details
Cautionary statement
Questioning

14. Hearsays are
spread by people
who are not on site
Paris Attacks Nice Attack

15. Hearsays increase with distance from media

16. Hearsay infirmation is always stronger

17. The crucial role of
public authorities
accounts

18. Primary and secondary
witnesses

19. Awareness, Reactivity, Strategy