Fake News on Twitter Is Still a Big Problem, Study Finds

Most of the Twitter accounts that spread fake news in 2016 are still going strong. 

Despite government efforts taken against those responsible for the misinformation campaigns during the 2016 election, 80 percent of these accounts are still active and still tweeting. Together, they produce about 1 million tweets per day, according to a Knight Foundation study released Thursday.

The foundation conducted an analysis of 700,000 Twitter accounts linked to "fake news" organizations and the more than 10 million tweets and retweets that these accounts sent before in the past few years.

The study also discovered that 60 percent of these accounts have evidence they are partially run by bots, and many of the bot-run accounts appear to be connected.

"These findings raise troubling questions. Some of the disinformation efforts in which these accounts participated during the 2016 election campaign were orchestrated by foreign actors, and they resulted in federal felony indictments," the report said. "Yet our data show that many accounts active in those disinformation campaigns continue to operate, despite clear evidence of automated activity."

Twitter announced Monday it would broaden its definition of what constitutes a fake account and enforce stricter punishments on those spreading misinformation on the site. Last month, Facebook also promised to crack down on fake accounts and "contain" the misinformation they spread.