Title: 5 Facts About Fake News That You Didn't Know | EVERFI
Headings: 5 Facts About Fake News That You Didn’t Know
5 Facts About Fake News That You Didn’t Know
Here are five key facts about fake news you probably didn’t know.
1. Fake news examples are not new
2. A fake news website can spread fake news faster than real news
3. Social media proficiency does not correlate with digital literacy
4. Schools are incorporating digital literacy into curricula
5. Businesses are developing countermeasures against misinformation
Digital Wellness Network

Content: It has also been wielded to make a profit. You’ve seen it in grocery store aisles for years–outrageous tabloid headlines propagating dubious celebrity rumors, conspiracy theories, and urban legends. Fake news is not new. But now it’s digital. 2. A fake news website can spread fake news faster than real news
The internet and social media have enabled misinformation to evolve and reach the masses faster and more insidiously than ever before, from deceptive click-bait–sensationalized headlines aimed to generate site traffic and make money through ad sales–to the larger implications of cyber propaganda–meant to manipulate public opinion on a national and even global scale. In a six-week period around the time of the 2016 presidential election, research suggests that as many as 25% of Americans visited a fake news website. An analysis of Facebook news around this same election found that the top 20 fake news stories generated more engagement than the top 20 credible news stories (from major news outlets). A similar study of content shared on Twitter found that, “falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information.” People are perhaps more inclined to share fake content because of the novelty and strong emotional reactions it elicits.