As the number and the diversity of news outlets on the Web grows, so does the opportunity for "alternative" sources of information to emerge. Using large social networks like Twitter and Facebook, misleading, false, or agenda-driven information can quickly and seamlessly spread online, deceiving people or inuencing their opinions. Also, the increased engagement of tightly knit communities, such as Reddit and 4chan, further compounds the problem, as their users initiate and propagate alternative information, not only within their own communities, but also to dierent ones as well as various social media. In fact, these platforms have become an important piece of the modern information ecosystem, which, thus far, has not been studied as a whole. In this paper, we begin to ll this gap by studying mainstream and alternative news shared on Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan. By analyzing millions of posts around several axes, we measure how mainstream and alternative news ows between these platforms. Our results indicate that alt-right communities within 4chan and Reddit can have a surprising level of inuence on Twitter, providing evidence that "fringe" communities often succeed in spreading alternative news to mainstream social networks and the greater Web.
Zannettou et al. REF study how mainstream and fringe Web communities (4chan, Reddit, and Twitter) share mainstream and alternative news sources to influence each other.
The web centipede: understanding how web communities influence each other through the lens of mainstream and alternative news sources
IMC '17
Computer Science