Bogus U.S. election stories

The backlash in the wake of the divisive U.S. election has centred on bogus news stories. In the final weeks of the campaign, fake news from hoax websites outperformed stories from mainstream outlets

Top five fake stories Fake news by Facebook engagement*  

Top five real stories Mainstream news by Facebook engagement* 

“Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President…” WTOE 5 NEWS 960,000 

“WikiLeaks Confirms Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS…” The Political Insider 789,000 

“IT’S OVER: Hillary’s ISIS Email just leaked & It’s Worse Than…”
 Ending the Fed 754,000 

“Just Read the Law: Hillary Is Disqualified From Holding Any Federal…”Ending the Fed 701,000 

“FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead…” Denver Guardian 567,000

“Trump’s History of Corruption Is Mind-Boggling…” Washington Post 849,000

“Stop Pretending You Don’t Know Why People Hate Hillary…” Huffington Post 623,000

“Melania Trump’s Girl-on-Girl Photos From Racy…” New York Post 531,000 

“Ford Fact Checks Trump:…” CNN 407,000

“I Ran the CIA. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary…” New York Times 373,000

6-in-10 U.S. adults get news from social media

News websites, TV, print 38% Social media 62%

*Engagement refers to total number of shares, reactions and comments
for specific content on FaceBook

Source: BuzzFeed News
Pictures: WTOE 5 News, Washington Post