It’s no surprise that interesting and unusual claims are often the most widely circulated articles on social media. Who wants to share boring stuff?
The problem, however, is that the spread of rumors, misinformation and unverified claims can overwhelm any effort to set the record straight, as we’ve seen during controversies over events like the Boston Marathon bombings and the conspiracy theory that the Obama administration manipulated unemployment statistics.
Everyone knows there is dubious information online, of course, but estimating the magnitude of the problem has been difficult until now.