"Fake news" probably did not change the outcome of the US presidential election, according to a study of news consumption by voters. The study bolsters arguments by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who has sought to deflect criticism that the huge social network may have been used to fuel the spread of misinformation that impacted the 2016 race.
However, the researchers did reach some potentially troubling conclusions - that 15 percent of people surveyed reported seeing fake news stories, and eight percent reported seeing and believing them.
The report was circulated this week by Hunt Allcott of New York University and Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford, researchers with the National Bureau of Economic Research, known for its role in determining recessions in the US economy.
The researchers concluded that despite the widespread consumption of fake stories, this was not likely a determining factor in Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton.
They said pro-Trump fake stories were shared on Facebook about three times more than pro-Clinton stories - 30.3 million shares compared to 7.6 million.
Still, they said that in order to swing the election, these stories would have had to change the votes of 0.51 percent of the voting age population, which was unlikely.
"Our data suggest that social media were not the most important source of election news, and even the most widely circulated fake news stories were seen by only a small fraction of Americans," the researchers wrote.
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