Study claims that Facebook should not to be 'blamed' for fake news

Users of the social networking site Facebook are likely to interact with a small number of news sources, despite a plethora of outlets to choose from, a new study suggests. The study focused on the activities of 376 million Facebook users between January 2010 and December 2015, who interacted with 920 different news outlets.

By tracking likes, shares and comments on news stories posted on Facebook, researchers led by Walter Quattrociocchi of the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Italy, determined what news sources people were engaging with and for how long. They found that despite the huge number of news sources to choose from, Facebook users each typically fixated on just a handful of pages to engage with.

The more active the user was in doling out likes, shares and comments, the more likely that person was to focus their energy on fewer sources, ‘Live Science’ reported. “There is a natural tendency of the users to confine their activity on a limited set of pages,” Quattrociocchi said. “According to our findings, news consumption on Facebook is dominated by selective exposure,” he said. Each user also looked at a limited constellation of news outlets, the researchers found. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.