There’s a theory worth exploring: each social group online, whether political, cultural, or professional, feeds itself through algorithms that mirror its beliefs. Within these bubbles, the way to gain more social acceptance is to go louder, bolder, and often, more extreme. “Fake” sells because it’s more exciting. It triggers emotion. It spreads faster.
Nowhere is this more visible than in how news travels online. Every share, like, and retweet is a social signal, and attention has become the new currency. The irony? Platforms could detect fake news in less than five hours, but they don’t.
A 2020 study by Zilong Zhao et al., Fake News Propagates Differently from Real News Even at Early Stages of Spreading, uncovered something remarkable. False information doesn’t just reach more people; it moves differently.
Here’s what the data shows:
- True information barely spreads. Most users see it once, directly from the source.
- Fake news, on the other hand, cascades in waves, reshared quickly and widely through layers of users. The original source becomes harder to trace, and the story becomes collectively owned.
This difference appears within the first five hours of publication. Meaning, with the right detection models, platforms could easily flag and even halt disinformation early. The technology exists. What’s missing is the will.
Because outrage sells.
Conflict drives clicks.
And algorithms reward engagement, not accuracy.
It’s not just a failure of moderation; it’s a design choice. Platforms know that emotionally charged content keeps users scrolling longer and advertisers happier. Every share of fake news fuels the business model.
What’s fascinating and unsettling is that fake news operates like a cult brand for misinformation. It forges emotional connection, shared identity, and group belonging. People don’t just believe fake news; they defend it because doing so earns them status inside their digital tribe.
So perhaps the deeper question isn’t “why don’t platforms stop it?” but “why do we keep feeding it?”
Until the system values truth as much as attention, fake will continue to outperform real.
The cure isn’t more censorship. It’s cultural clarity rebuilding trust, curiosity, and critical thinking as the true social currency.
And that might be the hardest algorithm to rewrite.