The Washington-based Brookings Institution last week released a report based on a national poll that found that 57 percent of respondents in the US said “they have seen fake news during the 2018 elections,” and 19 percent “believe it has influenced how they plan to vote.” As the US elections on Nov. 6 come closer, and with early voting already underway, concerns about the impact of fake news on voters is a top concern. In order to understand the impact of fake news on the 2016 election and potentially on the upcoming one, it is critical to define it. Much of the confusion about the impact of fake news and how to combat it stems from different uses of the term. While there are many definitions, fake news generally consists of false stories or information that are designed to look like credible news and are spread through the internet and social media with the intention of misleading target audiences. It is also important to understand what fake news is not. Legitimate news often has flaws: It can be presented in ways that are biased or fail to reflect multiple perspectives. Real news outlets can make mistakes, but their intention is to accurately inform their audience. Bias or unintentional errors do not make news “fake.” Some leaders today — especially Donald Trump but also Benjamin Netanyahu, Bashar Assad and Rodrigo Duterte, among others — frequently label any news or media they do not like as “fake news,” but simply disagreeing with fact-based reporting or feeling that it is biased does not make it fake. Fake news is intentionally designed to spread false information among an audience in order to achieve some goal, such as supporting a particular candidate, damaging an opponent, fomenting discord or undermining faith in institutions. Various actors produce fake news and facilitate its distribution. Some governments that want to affect politics and decision-making in another country spread fake news in ways that use modern technology to advance propaganda and disinformation efforts. Partisan actors that seek to advance their candidate or agenda and damage their opponents are sometimes behind fake news. Beyond governments and partisans, a hodgepodge of conspiracy theorists and others promote fake news. While financial gain through internet clicks and advertising is sometimes a factor, most fake news producers have political or other non-financial goals. Various forms of fake news have existed since ancient times, but modern actors use the internet and social media to reach new audiences in more targeted ways. They have many tools, including bots that take advantage of modern social media algorithms to spread their messages. Fake news can be harmful to modern societies in many ways. It has the potential to change electoral outcomes in ways that benefit hostile actors. It can erode trust in legitimate media as well as political and social institutions and even between friends and family. It can intensify partisanship or foster indifference. It can give greater influence to hostile or extreme actors at the expense of more moderate and pragmatic views. In modern US politics, the role of fake news in elections came to prominence during the 2016 presidential vote. Russia employed a disinformation campaign designed to sow discord and distrust, as well as to damage Hillary Clinton and promote Trump’s candidacy. Other actors, including hyper-partisan actors, created and distributed fake news designed to promote their candidates and damage their opponents. Producers of fake news came from both the left and right of the political spectrum, but multiple studies have demonstrated that a majority promoted right-wing interests. Various forms of fake news have existed since ancient times, but modern actors use the internet and social media to reach new audiences in more targeted ways. Kerry Boyd Anderson It remains unclear what the exact impact of fake news was on the 2016 elections. Several studies by academic institutions, think tanks and media outlets have suggested that — given how close the 2016 presidential election was and the extent of fake news during the campaign — fake news might have played an essential role in the election’s outcome. However, given several other important factors at play in the election, it is difficult to be certain about how much fake news shaped the result. Since 2016, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others have made efforts to find and close down bots, fake accounts and other tools that are used to promote fake news. However, significant concerns remain about the role that fake news is playing in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. A recent report by the Knight Foundation found that “most of the accounts that linked repeatedly to fake and conspiracy news during the (2016) election are still active.” An August report by Axios found that the actors promoting fake news are finding ways to circumvent efforts to identify automated and fake accounts. “Unfortunately, a lot of the work done by bad actors in 2016 has laid the foundation for even more sophisticated attacks in 2018,” it said. Despite efforts to stop the actors behind fake news and to publicize the threat, American voters today might be just as vulnerable to disinformation as they were two years ago. Even when fake news hurts one political party more than the other, it still damages American democracy and society as a whole. In the US — and any other country — fake news undermines faith in the institutions and leadership that knit a society together. Improved defenses against it would benefit all societies. Kerry Boyd Anderson is a writer and political risk consultant with more than 14 years’ experience as a professional analyst of international security issues and Middle East political and business risk. Twitter: @KBAresearch Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view