Misinformation is not about Bad Facts: An Analysis of the Production and
  Consumption of Fringe Content
JooYoung Lee Emily Booth Hany Farid Marian-Andrei Rizoiu
What if misinformation is not an information problem at all? Our findings
suggest that online fringe ideologies spread through the use of content that is
consensus-based and "factually correct". We found that Australian news
publishers with both moderate and far-right political leanings contain
comparable levels of information completeness and quality; and furthermore,
that far-right Twitter users often share from moderate sources. However, a
stark difference emerges when we consider two additional factors: 1) the narrow
topic selection of articles by far-right users, suggesting that they cherrypick
only news articles that engage with specific topics of their concern, and 2)
the difference between moderate and far-right publishers when we examine the
writing style of their articles. Furthermore, we can even identify users prone
to sharing misinformation based on their communication style. These findings
have important implications for countering online misinformation, as they
highlight the powerful role that users' personal bias towards specific topics,
and publishers' writing styles, have in amplifying fringe ideologies online.