Research note: The spread of political misinformation on online subcultural platforms

Abstract

This research note explores the extent to which misinformation and other types of “junk” content are spread on political boards and forums on 4chan and Reddit. Our findings suggest that these userbases are impervious to the appeal of low-quality “pink slime” news sites with algorithmically generated conservative talking points masquerading as journalism. However, these political boards' reliance on YouTube as a news source—specifically a group of ideologically-charged, misinfor-mation-laden channels that are part of what has been called the “Alternative Influence Network”—shows that cross-platform movements must be factored in to studying the spread of misinfor-mation. In addition, this study illustrates the viability of cross-platform hyperlinks as an object of study to better understand how users on particular platforms interact with the web at large.