How we can protect truth in the age of misinformation | Sinan Aral | TED Talk

In the TED Talk “How we can protect truth in the age of misinformation,” data scientist Sinan Aral focuses on the rise of fake news and the impact it has on society. He uses real-world examples, such as the false tweet that went viral after the 2013 Associated Press hack, to show how misinformation can have severe consequences - like a $140 billion loss in the stock market. Aral and his team conducted a study on verified true and false news stories that spread on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. They found that false news spread faster, further, deeper, and more broadly than the truth. Aral hypothesized that people are more likely to share false news because it is more novel and that social media bots play a significant role in spreading misinformation.