Without a compass: politics and information in the social-media age

The outsized, suspect influence of social media in the U.S. election has to be troubling for anyone concerned about democracy.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg initially said it was 'crazy' to think the site had influenced the election but, facing growing outrage, he is now saying Facebook will make an effort to curb fake news.Photograph courtesy of Alessio Jacona

Opinion

BY LES WHITTINGTON

November 23, 2016

OTTAWA—How could teenagers in a small town in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have had an impact on the vicious, hard-fought United States election campaign? Easy. Through Facebook. It turns out that teenagers and young men in the town of Veles created more than 100 U.S. political webs...

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