Mal Fletcher comments on the new study that has found that the truth takes six times longer than fake news to be seen by 1,500 people on Twitter.

Mal Fletcher

There is now something more we can add to the growing list of antisocial facts relating to social media.

A new study published, conducted at MIT and published in Science, has found that the truth takes six times longer than fake news to be seen by 1,500 people on Twitter.

A lie is apparently also 70 percent more likely to be shared via social media in the first place.

The authors of the study, which looked at 126,000 messages spreading false stories on Twitter, suggest that fake stories on social media are "diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth".

It is quite rare, they claim, for true stories to be seen by more than 1,000 people. Meanwhile, the one percent most popular false news are routinely reaching between 1,000 and 100,000 views.

Other studies have shown the impact of social media on what is now called social disinhibition.

Because of the anonymity most platforms offer, people will use social media to insult or bully someone whom they haven't met, in a way they would never do were they confronting the person face-to-face.

There is also a tendency toward intellectual fascism on social media. Some people will fiercely defend their own right of speech and belief on social media, while denying that right to others with whom they disagree. Often, they don't see the inherent contradiction.

Social media have, in a short space of time, become an important part of our social discourse. They offer unprecedented opportunities for communication and collaboration. They hold the potential to increase humanity's capacity to solve pressing social and environmental problems.

In some parts of the world, national and city governments use platforms like Twitter to publish important public safety and security updates and warnings. The Japanese seismic authorities use Twitter to broadcast warnings about impending tremors and quakes.

Some politicians with helpful things to say have found a ready audience through social media which would have been denied them in traditional, mainstream media. (Of course, some prominent political figures would be best advised to stay off social media altogether.)

There are many benefits associated with social media. Few who use these platforms would want to turn back the clock to a time when information was more difficult to find or disseminate.

However, our enthusiasm for communication tools should not blind us to their potential for harming relationships and discouraging social cohesion.

Social media should not be seen as mere conduits for the spread of bland political correctness. However, they must not be allowed to become mere conduits for lies.