Real reason fake news spreads so fast on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook users are increasingly time poor and overloaded with information. Photo / Ben Fraser

Fake news, hoaxes and outright lies are spreading on social media because users are inundated with posts from dubious sources and are not paying enough attention to question their truthfulness, according to a new study published today.

Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr needed take immediate action to shut down "bots" automatically sharing false information, according to the Indiana University research, and limit posts shared on their networks to ensure users weren't overwhelmed with propaganda.

The research, published in the Nature Human Behaviour journal, evaluated information shared on social media sites and found much of the content could not be trusted as "hoaxes and fake news spread as virally as reliable information".

The researchers, led by Dr Diego Fregolente Mendes de Oliveira, found social media users were struggling "to cope with the information overload caused by the messages that flood our screens" and did not question information sources or whether it had been verified by reputable organisations.

Automated "bot" accounts were also sharing fraudulent stories in greater numbers, it found, adding to users' confusion and exhaustion.

"Our results suggest that one way to increase the discriminative power of online social media would be to reduce information load by limiting the number of posts in the system," the report found.

"Currently, bot accounts controlled by software make up a significant portion of online profiles, and many of them flood social media with high volumes of low quality information to manipulate public discourse."

In 2014, Twitter revealed 23 million of its accounts were "bots" posting information automatically, and as many as 45 per cent of active Russian Twitter accounts are automated today, according to the Oxford Internet Institute.

Social media strategist Kylie Bartlett said competition for our attention had reached extreme levels, and social networks should introduce greater controls and curation to limit online propaganda.

"We're so time poor. We're turning to social media for a quick fix and we're not evaluating whether information we read is true," she said.

"There needs to be a bit more curation so our feeds aren't full of fakes."

Bartlett said users should also spend more time scrutinising information they shared online, and unfollowing users who were spreading misinformation.