The fight against misinformation on social media is becoming increasingly urgent – a study is now examining whether labels help to curb its spread.
While it still seemed exciting and new for presidential candidate Obama to be one of the first to make targeted use of social media in his election campaign, what is known in US political journalism as “The Dark Years” began in 2016: the election campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump showed how social media and thus the instrumentalization and spread of so-called fake news can reinforce society’s baser instincts. Fake news is also an increasingly pressing problem in Europe. Recently, as just one example, a rumor made the rounds that Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had purchased a villa in Kitzbühel for six million euros – pure fake news. The fatal thing: Even if it is corrected, misinformation finds its way into the minds of many people – and often stays there.