Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash.

ABSTRACT: The financial motivation to earn advertising revenue has been widely conjectured to be pivotal for the production of online misinformation^1-4. Research aimed at mitigating misinformation has so far focused on interventions at the user level^5-8, with little emphasis on how the supply of misinformation can itself be countered. Here we show how online misinformation is largely financed by advertising, examine how financing misinformation affects the companies involved, and outline interventions for reducing the financing of misinformation. First, we find that advertising on websites that publish misinformation is pervasive for companies across several industries and is amplified by digital advertising platforms that algorithmically distribute advertising across the web.

SUBMITTER: Ahmad W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11153133 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature