Publications
Publications
- November 2017
- HBS Case Collection
Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World
By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth
Abstract
Teaching Note for HBS No. 717-473.
In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to fake news stories served up on Facebook’s Trending News Feed. Zuckerberg was unapologetic. The word that came to define this spread of misinformation was “post-truth,” which became so widely used in 2016 that Oxford Dictionaries coined the term “word of the year.” Did Trump have Zuckerberg to thank? Facebook had sparked many controversies during its short lifespan. By 2017, it had grown into the biggest social networking group in the world, with 1.8 billion people. Was this just another challenge along the way, or were the issues more fundamental?
Keywords
Facebook; Fake News; Mark Zuckerberg; Donald Trump; Algorithms; Social Networking; Social Networks; Partisanship; Social Media; App Development; Instagram; WhatsApp; Smartphone; Silicon Valley; Office Space; Digital Strategy; Democracy; Entry Barriers; Online Platforms; Controversy; Tencent; Agility; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Computer Games; Mobile Gaming; Messaging; Monetization Strategy; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Headquarters; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Trends; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; California; Sunnyvale; Russia
Citation
Wells, John R., and Gabriel Ellsworth. "Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 718-456, November 2017.