In the process of working on the practical part, 202 fake news circulating on the Internet from 2018 to 2020 were studied. Most of the data was taken from a dataset of fake articles obtained from GitHub based on the analysis of fake articles from the BuzzFeed News website. Some of the fake articles were also taken from fact-checker sites, such as Snopes, Politifact, StopFake, or Washington Post Fact Checker. In addition to analyzing fake articles on websites, I tracked their distribution on the Facebook social network. The CrowdTangle browser plugin developed by Facebook was used to track the spread of fake news. This plugin allows you to track all posts (including private and public posts) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit with a link to a news article. In addition, the plugin shows the total number of user interactions such as the number of likes, comments, and reposts of the post. The plugin also shows the main Facebook groups that posted a post with a link to a news article. The plugin displays the date the post was added, the number of people in the group, and the number of likes, comments, and
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reposts of the post from the group. The data can be converted into an Excel table format and downloaded for further processing.
Figure 18: Example of the information displayed by the CrowdTangle plugin (source: author)
For a more detailed study of the reaction of Facebook users to posts with fake news, the BuzzSumo.com content monitoring tool was used. BuzzSumo.com is social media analytics and content marketing curation tool. The system helps to search the Internet for content based on search queries and reports, based on various factors, including likes and shares. Thanks to this tool, it was possible to track how users reacted to content on Facebook. The exceptions were links to sites in languages other than English, as well as posts that had insufficient reactions to analyze with Buzzsumo.com.
Figure 19: An example of analyzing a news article by displaying user reactions on Facebook (source: author)
Facebook reactions are 6 emojis that users can use to react to a post. The available reactions are shown in the figure below:
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Figure 20: Types of reactions on Facebook (Facebook, n.d.)
One of the important criteria for evaluating any information is its understanding. To
understand information from news articles, this information must be in a readable form. To check the readability of the information, I used the tool for checking the readability of the Webfx.com web resource. For the analysis of web articles, the Flesch Kincaid Reading Essay Test was used, which allows you to determine the complexity of writing the text in the article.
The test result is calculated using the formula: 206,835 1,015 ∗ /
84,6 ∗ /
The points obtained in the calculation can be interpreted as follows:
Points Notes
0-10 Extremely difficult to read, best understood by university graduates.
10-30 Very difficult to read, best understood by university students
30-50 Difficult to read
50-60 Understanding text can be difficult
60-70 Plain English, easily understood by a student aged 13-15
70-80 Fairly easy to read
80-90 Easy to read, conversational English
90-100 Very easy to read, 10-year-old student level
Table 1: Interpreting readability results
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Also, for news articles, the percentage of difficult words was determined, which also affects the complexity of the perception of the text. The value can range from 0% to 100%, corresponding to the ratio of the number of complex words in the text to simple ones.
To analyze fake news articles, the criteria were determined by which these articles were checked. The table below depicts the criteria for evaluating news articles:
Criterion Notes
What's the headline of the news? A news headline can provide a lot of information about an article without even reading it. It is necessary to pay attention to the exclamation marks and capital letters, which brings attention to the article. Words like "IMPORTANT" or "BREAKING NEWS" placed at the beginning of the headline can also attract additional attention.
URL of news? Internet article address.
URL of the website? The address of the site where the article is posted. Some fake news sites try to copy the addresses of well-known news sites to make the news more credible.
Readability score? Average The level of readability of the text in the article. A higher value means more complex text.
Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease score? Readability level of text on the Flesch – Kincaid scale.
Is the date when the news was published? Many fake articles do not have a publication date. In this case, the news may be relevant both today and months later.
Is there a date or time when the event
happened? A very important criterion, because in the
absence of the date of the incident, fake news can be attached to the actual event.
Is the exact location of the event indicated? The unspecified location of the incident allows the authors to correlate fictional events with those that actually happened in a specific location.
Type of content? The category to which the news can be
attributed. For example, politics, sports, religion.
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Are there any links to the "source"? Since fake news describes fictional events, they often do not have any sources, or the sources are indicated incorrectly.
Is the author listed? Fake news often does not have an author or an unreal person is listed as the author. It is also impossible to contact such an author.
Can the news be perceived as real? Some fake news writes about events that are extremely difficult to believe in reality.
Basically, such news is related to satirical and entertainment news sites.
Does the title match the content? One way to get users' attention is to create a provocative headline. Often these headings have nothing to do with the content of the article.
Does the news refer to a famous person? Famous individuals or companies in the headlines and in the news get more attention from the audience than unknown ordinary people.
Are there photos? Quantity? Since fake news often describes fictional events, the number of photos in such news is small.
If there are some images, do they have a source?
Images in fake news are often not directly related to the news itself and can be added simply to dilute the text with a picture.
Naturally, such images will have no source.
Can I leave comments under the news on the site?
Actively discussing false news in comments can create a false impression of the news's seriousness or importance.
How long does it take to read the entire article? (in minutes)
Brevity and conciseness are the keys to successful fake news. The less the author goes into detail when writing an article, the more the reader will think for himself.
Does the site pose as a real news portal? Some sites that distribute fake news are positioned solely for entertainment and do not pursue the goal of misinforming the reader.
The number of reactions to this news on
Facebook with a link to this resource? The total number of reactions of users on Facebook to this news.
The number of comments on this news on
Facebook with a link to this resource? The total number of Facebook users who commented on a post with a link to this
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The number of shares of this news on
Facebook with a link to this resource? The total number of Facebook users who shared a link to this news.
Overall FACEBOOK INTERACTIONS? The sum of reactions, comments, and reposts of Facebook users.
Main sources of fake news spread on
Facebook? The name of the main groups that posted a
publication with a link to this news.
Table 2: Criteria for evaluating fake news articles
The data obtained from the analysis of articles according to the criteria described above were examined for the correlation of values. Numerical values were analyzed using the CORREL function in the Excel environment, while non-qualitative data were analyzed using association and contingency coefficients.
To calculate the coefficients of association and contingency, which show the presence or absence of a connection between the two criteria, it is necessary to fill out the table as follows:
1 2 ∑
I a b a+b
II c d c+d
∑ a+c b+d
Values a and b correspond to the number of answers to the first question, while values c and d correspond to the number of answers to the second question.
The association coefficient is calculated using the following formula:
If the Ka > |0,5|, this means that there is a relationship between the two selected criteria.
However, the association coefficient is not very accurate: if one of the variables has a value of 0, then Ka will be equal to 1, which corresponds to the maximum level of correlation of the two selected criteria. For a more accurate assessment of the relationship between the two criteria, the contingency coefficient is used.
The contingency coefficient is calculated using the formula:
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If the Kcont > |0,3|, this means that there is a relationship between the two selected criteria.
If the relationship between the two criteria was successfully found, these criteria were analyzed in detail to describe their relationship.