100 pro-Trump fake news sites were registered in Veles, Macedonia. They had American-sounding names such as USADailyPolitics.com. Most authors were teenagers and their motives were money rather than ideology.

Kalamazoo College

Oftentimes, the producers of misinformation hide their identity. However, a few producers have been identified, e.g. Macedonian teenagers and Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA).

Production of Misinformation

Guess, A. M. & Lyons, B. A. (2020). Misinformation, Disinformation, and Online Propaganda. In Persily, N. & Tucker, J. A. (Eds.), Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform (pp. 10-33). Cambridge University Press.

Misinformation, Disinformation, and Online Propaganda

Macedonians as producers of misinformation during the U.S. precidential election in 2016

The Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) was identified as a "troll factory" because of its engagement in the U.S. presidential campaign in 2016. The publishers followed concrete instructions, e.g. to write a certain amount of comments per day and to use certain key words. They had specific targets for their online activities. Besides spreading misinformation, they spend the majority of their time building an online profile and character. The individual publishers were motivated by money rather than ideology but political interests were the main motivation on the organizational level.

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