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The lucrative market behind viral fake news

France24 · 🇫🇷 public France · · 934 words · By The FRANCE; Aurélia ABDELBOST
Digital Advertising Regulation Attention Economy Algorithmic Amplification
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What to know about Digital Advertising Regulation

The lucrative market behind viral fake news Public debate is increasingly disrupted by viral misinformation circulating on social media.

Claims checked 12
Techniques found 1
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

The lucrative market behind viral fake news Public debate is increasingly disrupted by viral misinformation circulating on social media.

Why it matters

Behind this sensationalist content regularly lie actors driven by pure profit.

Common ground

To truly understand the spread of online misinformation, author and academic Carlos Diaz Ruiz suggests it must be analysed as the outcome of a market system in its own right.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260602-lucrative-market-behind-viral-fa…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 12 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
schedule Pending 2
info Single Source 1
verified Verified 1
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Claim 1: “While Instagram and TikTok perform slightly better – with engagement multipliers of four and two, respectively”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for this claim in the provided search results.
help
Claim 2: “LinkedIn is the only platform that appears to avoid the trap [of higher engagement for misinformation].”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for this claim in the provided search results.
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Claim 3: “The confusion was caused by an AI-generated video posted on Facebook by a Burkinabe teen.”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web sources confirm the video was AI-generated, posted on Facebook, and created by a teenager from Burkina Faso.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Diem (formerly known as Libra) was a permissioned blockchain-based stablecoin payment system proposed by the American social media company Facebook. The plan also included a private currency implement…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diem_(digital_currency)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Islamic religious police (also known as morality police or sharia police) are official Islamic religious enforcement agencies, often found in Muslim-majority countries, that oversee religious observan…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_religious_police
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jackson Daniel Hinkle (born September 15, 1999) is an American political commentator, influencer, and conspiracy theorist who hosts the web television show Legitimate Targets with Jackson Hinkle on Yo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Hinkle
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 4: “Carlos Diaz Ruiz, author of “Market-Oriented Disinformation Research”, argues that to better combat fake news, we must view this ecosystem as a market”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Google Scholar and other web results explicitly list Carlos Diaz Ruiz as the author of 'Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media' published by Routledge in 2025.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 25, 2025 ... Author(s). Biography. Carlos Diaz Ruiz, Ph.D., is a business academic specializing in marketing strategy, consumer insights, and disinformation ...
https://www.routledge.com/Market-Oriented-Disinformation-Res…
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web search NEUTRAL — Apr 30, 2026 ... Book review Diaz Ruiz, C. (2025). Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media ( ...
https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/publications/book-review…
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web search NEUTRAL — Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media. C Diaz Ruiz. Routledge, 2025. 21, 2025.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K1hiHYQAAAAJ&hl=en
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Claim 5: “In December 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that an African head of state had contacted him, believing a coup d'état was under way in France.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results from December 2025 confirm that an AI-generated video led an African head of state to believe a coup was happening in France, and President Macron addressed this.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. He has been a member of Renaissance since founding the party in 20…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of international presidential trips made by Emmanuel Macron, the 25th and current President of France. As of June 2026, Emmanuel Macron has made 340 presidential trips to 100 states int…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_presiden…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Emmanuel Macron is currently serving as President of France. He took office upon winning the 2017 French presidential election. Macron was the founding member of Renaissance. He defeated National Rall…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Emmanuel_Macron
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 6: “On X, engagement is roughly ten times higher, and on Facebook, nine times higher [for false content].”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence mentions SIMODS reports and engagement multipliers for YouTube and Facebook (e.g., 7.2x in the first report), but the specific figures of '10 times' for X and '9 times' for Facebook from the report are not explicitly present in the snippets.
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web search NEUTRAL — On YouTube, low-credibility accounts receive more than 8 times the engagement of high-credibility accounts. Facebook shows a similar pattern (7.2×), while ...
https://science.feedback.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SIMO…
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web search NEUTRAL — Social media like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) are especially prone catalysts for the evolution of fake news and have consequently come to the fore of ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004727272…
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web search NEUTRAL — They suggested that future research could attempt to replicate their findings on different social media platforms, and to include more than 2 protagonists and ...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11369541/
schedule
Claim 7: “According to Reuters, Meta anticipated that it would bring in roughly 10% of its total annual revenue – around $16 billion – from illicit ads and scams in late 2024.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 8: “In late April, CBC News and Radio-Canada revealed that a network of disinformation YouTube channels campaigning for Alberta's independence was actually being run by creators based in the Netherlands.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results from April 2026 confirm that CBC News and Radio-Canada reported on a network of Alberta independence YouTube channels run by creators in the Netherlands.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, including CBC Tel…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBC_News
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serv…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporat…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — YouTube is an American online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, and Steve Chen, three former employees of PayPal. It is the second-most-visited w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_YouTube_videos
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 9: “The creator of the video, which garnered more than ten million views, told French daily Le Monde that his sole motivation was to make money.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm the video garnered millions of views and that the creator was a Burkinabe teen who spoke to Le Monde, with one source specifically mentioning the 'more than ten million views' and financial motivation context.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mistral AI SAS (French: [mistʁal]) is a French artificial intelligence (AI) company, headquartered in Paris. Founded in 2023, it has open-weight large language models (LLMs), with both open-source and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistral_AI
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In American politics since the 2020s, political figures have deployed AI-generated images, videos, and audio to attack opponents, create misleading narratives, or inflame emotions. The use of generati…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI-generated_content_in_Americ…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses generative models to generate text, images, videos, audio, software code (vibe coding) or other forms…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_AI
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 10: “a recent report by the SIMODS research project... estimates that a YouTube account that frequently posts false or misleading content receives 11 times more engagement than a credible source with the same subscriber count.”
VERIFIED
The '2026-03-Second SIMODS Report' from Science Feedback explicitly states that on YouTube, low-credibility accounts receive more than 11 times the engagement of high-credibility accounts.
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web search NEUTRAL — (low-credibility) attract more engagement per post per 1 000 followers than credible ... On YouTube, low-credibility accounts receive more than 8 times the ...
https://science.feedback.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SIMO…
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web search NEUTRAL — Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news
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web search NEUTRAL — On YouTube, low-credibility accounts receive more than 11 times the engagement of high-credibility accounts. X/Twitter shows a similar pattern, exhibiting a.
https://science.feedback.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SIMO…
verified
Claim 11: “The network amassed 40 million views.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While the existence of the Dutch-run Alberta separatist network is corroborated, the specific figure of '40 million views' is not mentioned in the provided evidence snippets.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Alberta separatism, also known as the Alberta sovereignty movement, consists of a series of 20th- and 21st-century movements advocating the secession of the province of Alberta from Canada, with some …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_separatism
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. He received widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues. …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Thomas MacDonald (born September 21, 1988) is a Canadian rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer and former professional wrestler. His music has been characterized as "MAGA rap", a Trumpist subgenr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_MacDonald_(rapper)
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 12: ““Know Your Customer” (KYC) regulations... require banks to verify their clients' identities to prevent activities such as terrorist financing and money laundering.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.