Misinformation Age, written for a political era riven by "fake news," "alternative facts," and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, shows convincingly that what you believe depends on who you know. If social forces explain the persistence of false belief, we must understand how those forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively.

This book takes up the mainstreaming of the fringe and the marginalization of the mainstream. In a cross-platform analysis of Google Web Search, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, 4chan, and TikTok, we found that hyperpartisan web operators, alternative influencers, and ambivalent commentators are in the ascendency. The book can be read as a form of platform criticism. It displays the current state of information online, noting how social media platforms have taken on the mantle of accidental authorities, privileging their own on-platform performers and, at the same time, adjudicating between claims of what is considered acceptable discourse.

This includes the circulation of misleading content or misinformation, the development of new technological applications such as the deepfake, and how they intersect with conspiracy theories, populism, global crises, popular disenfranchisement, and new practices of regulating misleading content and promoting new media and digital literacies.

This volume examines the phenomenon of fake news by bringing together leading experts from different fields within psychology and related areas, and explores what has become a prominent feature of public discourse since the first Brexit referendum and the 2016 US election campaign.

Fake news is a dangerous problem that affects everyone. It can undermine democracies, negatively impact public health, and destroy reputations. How fake news spreads, the problems fake news causes, and how to recognize and keep from spreading it are discussed.