Why is fake news so harmful?

Fake news is one of the main threats of the modern era and behind it lies a real industry of disinformation carried on by troll factories, often supported by governments, created specifically to produce and spread it. Some recent studies seem to show that fake news would not be effective in subverting the outcome of elections, because human beings always act in accordance with their own confirmation bias and therefore don't change their minds when confronted with information with which they don't agree. Therefore, those who intend to vote in a certain direction will not change their beliefs upon encountering pieces of information that support a different view, whether it is true or false.

However, the problem is not so trivial and a simple consideration is enough to confirm it: if fake news has no effect, why do some governments and agencies invest enormous capitals to produce and disseminate it?

First of all it must be considered that the studies according to which fake news is not effective are based on the behavior of people on social networks which, it should be remembered, are not a mirror of the real world, because only the most polarized users embark on long discussions on social networks; moreover, if fake news can affect even a numerically limited group of undecided people, it can consequently influence the outcome of elections for which percentages are close.

Having clarified this first aspect, the problem is however much more complex and the purpose of the trolls is not only to influence the electoral results, but also (and above all) to create social tension and mistrust in the institutions, as recently confirmed by various official statements by representatives of US federal agencies.

FBI Director Christopher Wray declared in September of this year in front of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security that Russia attempted to influence the 2020 presidential election not only by trying to denigrate the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, but also to sow discord and division among the population. In the same month, the FBI and the CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) published an announcement in which they warned the population that entities attributable to foreign governments could after the elections on November 3, in the scrutiny period, disseminate false information regarding frauds, cyber attacks on voting platforms or other similar problems in order to undermine the confidence of the population in the legitimacy of the elections.

A national security report from the United States Department of Homeland Security states that state trolls (Russia, Iran and China are mentioned) aim at weakening the United States in order to strengthen the standing in the world of their own governments, and to do so they aim to sow discord, exacerbate voters' positions, create social tension, make Western governments appear unable to manage the pandemic and undermine confidence in the legitimacy of elections and in the media.

Actions to sow anger and divide the population seem to work well, to the point that the FBI considers conspiracy theories an internal terrorist threat and that recently a deviant far-right group fueled by fake news about the pandemic had plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer.

Therefore, even if some studies suggest that elections are not influenced by trolls, we must not underrate how dangerous they are, because what they are trying to achieve is actually much more destructive.