Over the past six years — since the 2016 election cycle — the term "fake news" has grown to be practically unavoidable. It has been thrown around by people of every political background to mean a myriad of things. Sometimes it is used to point out blatantly false information, sometimes it refers to information that is factually correct but inaccurate within the context, and sometimes is refers to news that people simply do not like. Donald Trump and Trump supporters were and are infamous for using the term "fake news" to dismiss news stories that do not support Trump, his campaign, or his administration. In this context, it was used to create a distrust of news media, so no matter how accurate the reported information may be, Trump could still discredit it.
Because people use the term "fake news" so often and mean many different things depending on the context, it is difficult to nail down a concrete definition of the phrase. This is when terms like "misinformation" and "disinformation" come in handy.
Misinformation: Inaccurate information that spreads due to ignorance. People who spread misinformation likely believe the information themselves.
Disinformation: Inaccurate information that is created and/or spread with the intent of misleading people. People who spread or create disinformation are aware that the information is inaccurate and/or biased. It is often used for political gains or to attack a public individual.
Fake News: A broad term with varied meanings depending on the context in which it is used.
Regardless of what you call it, it is clear that people are trusting the news media less and less since the 2016 elections. Part of this is because people are lacking media literacy. Many people are unable to determine the reliability of their news sources. With the rising popularity of social media, it is very easy for people to pass off false information as news. Anyone can create a website that looks like a legitimate news source and post whatever information they like, and people who lack media literacy can easily be fooled by this.
Social media platforms like Facebook have especially become hubs for the spread of fake news. This is because it is so easy to repost an article that has an interesting headline without verifying its source or even reading the article. Suddenly thousands of people are reposting the article and fueling a certain belief with information that may be completely inaccurate. This has led to a huge political divide across the world but especially in the U.S. People's distrust in the media became an even more serious issue in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. People did not believe the safety information being shared through news media which likely worsened the pandemic because people were not wearing masks, social distancing, or getting vaccinated.
Having such serious effects on people's lives, you would think that Facebook would try to stop the spread of misinformation on its feed, however this does not seem to be the case. As of 2020, Facebook was the top fake news breeding ground across all social media platforms. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has downplayed the effects of the amount of misinformation spread on the site, and did not acknowledge Facebook's potential impact on the 2016 elections. While removing incorrect information can lead to limited expression of ideas and bias on the platform, other social media platforms like Twitter have tried to address the problem by fact checking tweets and marking posts that have been determined to be false.