The Spread of Fake News

How does fake news get spread online? Its not just a matter of manipulating search algorithms. The social platforms for sharing play a major role in the distribution of fake news. But how significant of an impact can there be? How significantly can bots influence the spread of fake news?

In this episode, Kyle interviews Filippo Menczer, Professor of Computer Science and Informatics.

Fil is part of the Observatory on Social Media ([OSoMe](https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/tools/)). OSoMe are the creators of [Hoaxy](http://hoaxy.iuni.iu.edu/), [Botometer](https://botometer.iuni.iu.edu/), [Fakey](https://fakey.iuni.iu.edu/), and other tools for studying the spread of information on social media.

The interview explores these tools and the contributions Bots make to the spread of fake news.

Guest

Filippo Menczer: I am the Luddy Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, director of the Observatory on Social Media, and a member (and former director) of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research. I also have courtesy appointments in Cognitive Science and Physics and am a Fellow of the Center for Computer-Mediated Communication, a Senior Research Fellow of the Kinsey Institute, a Fellow at the ISI Foundation in Torino, Italy, and a Fellow of the ACM and AAAS. Research in my group, NaN, spans computational social science, network science, Web science, and data science, with a focus on analyzing and modeling the spread of information and misinformation in social networks and detecting and countering the manipulation of social media. We also study social computing, Web search and data mining, and science of science.