How Fake News Goes Viral, and Why It Will Happen Less

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by: Ricardo Bilton | Digiday

Today’s Web economics has created the perfect environment for the proliferation fake news. A story like last fall’s whopper about a woman with three breasts can get shared by thousands of people — and even get picked up by multiple high-profile news outlets — before being debunked.

“There were a lot people who wrote about it as if it were true and just didn’t follow up,” said Craig Silverman, a fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center and founder of Emergent, a site that tracks the spread of rumors and fake news stories.

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