Long version of the paper presented by Dan Angus, Axel Bruns, Edward Hurcombe, and Stephen Harrington at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference, 12-16 Oct. 2021.

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'Fake News’ on Facebook:
A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study of Problematic
Link-Sharing Practices from 2016 to 2021
Daniel Angus, Axel Bruns, Edward Hurcombe, and Stephen Harrington
QUT Digital Media Research Centre
daniel.angus | a.bruns | edward.hurcombe | s.harrington @ qut.edu.au
@antmandan | @snurb_dot_info | @EddyFHurc | @_StephenH

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Aims
• Beyond ‘fake news’:
• Understanding the dissemination of problematic information across social media at scale
• Identifying different types of problematic information (by theme, audience, dynamics, …)
• Problematic information on Facebook:
• Dynamics of content sharing over time (key events, per domain, impact of take-downs)
• Networks of interaction and communities of interest (thematic, ideological, geographic, …)
• Funding:
• ARC Discovery project DP200101317:
Evaluating the Challenge of 'Fake News' and Other Malinformation

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Data
• FakeNIX:
• Iteratively updated masterlist of domains listed in existing studies of ‘fake news’
• 2,314 domains to date (from Shao et al., 2016; Starbird et al., 2017; Allcott et al., 2018; Grinberg et al.,
2019; Guess et al., 2018; 2019; etc.)
• Data from CrowdTangle: any Facebook posts from public pages / groups / verified profiles that
contained links to any of these domains
• 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021: 42.6m posts
• Limitations:
• Only public pages / groups / verified profiles (from here: spaces) – no non-public sharing
• CrowdTangle coverage for spaces with small followings is incomplete / inconsistent
• ‘Fake news’ domain lists largely US- / Anglocentric

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US
election
Inauguration
US
election
Capitol
riots
Inauguration
Pandemic
Impeachment
#1

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Approach
• Network analysis:
• Link-sharing network:
• Bipartite network: space ↔ domain
• Structure expected to show clusters commonly sharing same domains
• Computational content analysis of posts per cluster
• Facebook on-sharing network:
• Public Facebook spaces sharing other spaces’ posts that contain FakeNIX links
• Monopartite network: public space ↔ public space
• Structure expected to show common interests, beliefs, politics

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Facebook spaces sharing
links to FakeNIX domains
Link-Sharing Network

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted in-degree
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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US progressives
US conservatives
France /
Germany
Italy
Brazil
India
alternative
health
conspiracies
UK
alternative
finance
Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted in-degree
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: majority location of page admins
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted in-degree
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted in-degree
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Christians
end times
guns
Tea Party
alternative finance
Detail: US Conservatives

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Nigeria
Pakistan
India
South Africa
Italy
Brazil
Germany
Spain
France
Detail: Language / Country Communities

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climate change denial
antivax
alternative medicine
alternative food
astrology
UFOs
autism
UK left
UK satire
Detail: Conspiracy Theorists

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US progressives
Detail: US Progressives

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: space type
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Space-Domain Network
Nodes: public pages, groups, verified profiles / domains in posts
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: subscriber count
FakeNIX domain posts, 1 Jan. 2016 to 31 Mar. 2021

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Facebook spaces sharing
other Facebook spaces’ posts
(that contain links to FakeNIX domains)
Facebook On-Sharing
Network

20. Space-Space Network
Nodes: public pages / groups / verified profiles
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted degree
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

21. Space-Space Network
Labels: space names
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

22. Space-Space Network
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces
Spanish
French
Berniecrats
US Progressives
US Conservatives
Indian
Italian
German
climate change denial
alternative medicine
alternative health
Brazilian

23. Space-Space Network
Colour: modularity class
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

24. Space-Space Network
Colour: modularity class
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

25. Space-Space Network
Colour: country of majority of space administrators
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

26. Space-Space Network
Public page
Public group
Public verified profile
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

27. Space-Space Network
Colour: number of subscribers
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

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Detail: US Conservatives
Nodes: public pages / groups / verified profiles
Size: weighted in-degree
Colour: weighted degree
Posts containing FakeNIX links shared from other Facebook spaces

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Detail: US Conservatives (close-up)

30. Detail: US Progressives

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Detail: RT/Sputnik

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Detail: Conspiracy Theories

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Detail: Conspiracy Theories

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Detail: French

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Detail: Indian

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Detail: Italian

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Detail: Spanish

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Summary

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Limitations and Outlook
• Limitations:
• public Facebook spaces only (pages, groups, and verified profiles)
• no data on non-public groups
• no data on public or non-public profile activity
• domain-level analysis only
• Outlook:
• general activity of most active FakeNIX sharers (including posts without FakeNIX links)
• further thematic analysis: which topics are prominent in which network contexts
• longitudinal analysis: changes over time (e.g. pre- / post-COVID)
• cross-platform analysis: comparisons with Twitter etc.

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This research is funded by the ARC project DP200101317 Evaluating the Challenge of 'Fake News'
and Other Malinformation.
It is also supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-
Making and Society.
Facebook data are provided courtesy of CrowdTangle.
Acknowledgments

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FakeNIX Sources
Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., & Yu, C. (2018). Trends in the Diffusion of Misinformation on Social Media. https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.05901v1
Grinberg, N., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Swire-Thompson, B., & Lazer, D. (2019). Fake News on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Science,
363(6425), 374–378. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau2706
Guess, A., Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2018). Selective Exposure to Misinformation: Evidence from the Consumption of Fake News during the 2016 US Presidential
Campaign. Dartmouth College. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/fake-news-2016.pdf
Guess, A., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. (2019). Less than You Think: Prevalence and Predictors of Fake News Dissemination on Facebook. Science Advances, 5(1),
eaau4586. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau4586
Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G. L., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2016). Hoaxy: A Platform for Tracking Online Misinformation. Proceedings of the 25th International
Conference Companion on World Wide Web, 745–750. https://doi.org/10.1145/2872518.2890098
Starbird, K. (2017, March 15). Information Wars: A Window into the Alternative Media Ecosystem. Medium. https://medium.com/hci-design-at-uw/information-wars-a-
window-into-the-alternative-media-ecosystem-a1347f32fd8f