AbstractThis study reports an exploratory inquiry into the problematic phenomenon of fake news on Facebook, aiming at providing an inside view on how users in the United Kingdom (UK) value the credibility of news posts on Facebook in a post-Brexit era. Participants (n = 201) were asked to review four different Brexit-related Facebook posts that linked to news articles from UK tabloids that were published between 2016 and 2019. Two of the posts were debunked as fake news, while the other two were verified as real news. The authors of each Facebook post were different: two from UK tabloids and two from unknown individuals. Respondents were asked to identify the credibility of the news posts in Facebook’s news feed. The results indicate that the author of the post significantly influences users’ perceived credibility. For instance, a fake news post from an individual is perceived as the least trustworthy, while a real news post from an individual and a fake news post from a tabloid are somewhat similarly perceived. The content of a post is seen as most trustworthy when it is a real news post from a tabloid and as least credible when it is a fake news post from an individual. Finally, in two cases, credibility can predict willingness to interact with a post. The research concludes with a set of recommendations for future research.
Factors influencing content credibility in Facebook’s news feed
