“Brave New World” of Fake News: How It Works

Abstract

The spread of fake news poses a serious threat to democracy and journalism. Fake news has found the ideal tools to thrive in the digital world. Therefore, it is urgent to understand this phenomenon. The purpose of this review is to analyse the various stages of the fake news circuit, in order to clarify the phenomenon, its causes and processes, identifying the various routes for spreading fake news, the reasons behind its manufacture and the factors that contribute to its rapid proliferation and success. Our results showed that the problem is not just social media, but the entire digital and technological universe, as well as user behaviour. On the one hand, programmatic web advertising, coupled with ideological motivations, remains an incentive for the creation of fake news. On the other hand, malicious bots and bad algorithms (initially created with good intentions) are being the great allies of fake news, promoting the creation of filter bubbles and echo chambers. In addition, literature has shown that filter bubbles are created not only by bad algorithms, but also by users who are unaware of how the algorithms work and prefer to consume information according to their beliefs, limiting themselves to a closed view.