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Far-right populists much more likely than the left to spread fake news – study

Amplifying misinformation is now part of radical right strategy, says Dutch study of tweets by MPs in 26 countries

Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy. The data showed conclusively that far-right populism was “the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread of misinformation”, they concluded, with MPs from centre-right, centre-left and far-left populist parties “not linked” to the practice. The researchers noted that they would not be able to expand their dataset of MPs’ posts on X because the platform – now owned by the US billionaire Elon Musk, who has made no secret of his support for far-right parties – no longer offers data access.

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