Fake news does not only disrupt society but also economy and the deep roots of democracy. Sometimes, their impact can even be measured in terms of people killed by the misinformation that it’s spread around.

Sinan Aral, a scientist, entrepreneur and investor with a PhD in IT economics, applied econometrics and statistics, has run some of the largest randomised experiments in digital social networks like Facebook and Twitter to measure the impact of persuasive messages and peer influence on our economy, our society and our public health.

Having conducted the most extensive longitudinal study of false news spread on Twitter, which was published on the cover of Science this March, Aral has proven that false news diffuses farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth online. But why? The answer will leave you astonished as the main cause for such an effective spread of false news is not bots, it’s…us. So, how can we be sure that something is real? As well as teaching at MIT as a Professor of IT & Marketing, Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society, Aral is currently a founding partner at Manifest Capital and on the Advisory Boards of the Alan Turing Institute, the British National Institute for Data Science, in London and C6 Bank, the first alldigital bank of Brazil, in Sao Paulo. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx