Research note: The spread of political misinformation on online subcultural platforms
Open accessAbstract
This research note explores the extent to which misinformation and other types of “junk” content are spread on political boards and forums on 4chan and Reddit. Our findings suggest that these userbases are impervious to the appeal of low-quality “pink slime” news sites with algorithmically generated conservative talking points masquerading as journalism. However, these political boards' reliance on YouTube as a news source—specifically a group of ideologically-charged, misinfor-mation-laden channels that are part of what has been called the “Alternative Influence Network”—shows that cross-platform movements must be factored in to studying the spread of misinfor-mation. In addition, this study illustrates the viability of cross-platform hyperlinks as an object of study to better understand how users on particular platforms interact with the web at large.
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Pink slime news sites are characterized by algorithmically generated websites, with visually similar content, layouts and origins.
“Pink slime news sites are characterized by algorithmicallygenerated websites, with visually similar content, layouts and origins (Burton and Koehorst 2020).”
From Pink slime journalism on Facebook: advertisement trends and political influence (2019–2024) (2026) · cites this paper as Burton and Koehorst 2020
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Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Bengani, P. (2019, December 18). Hundreds of 'pink slime' local news outlets are distributing algorithmic stories and conservative talking points. Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/hundreds-of-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-are- distributing-algorithmic-stories-conservative-talking-points.php/
- Benkler, Y., Faris, R., & Roberts, H. (2018). Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalization in American politics. Oxford University Press.
- Cohen, N. S. (2015). From pink slips to pink slime: Transforming media labor in a digital age. The Communication Review, 18(2), 98-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2015.1031996 · DOI
- Hagen, S., & Jokubauskaite, E. (2019). Dutch junk news on 4chan and Reddit /pol/. In R. Rogers & S. Niederer (Eds.), The Politics of Social Media Manipulation (pp. 115-151). Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
- Tuters, M. (2019). LARPing & liberal tears: Irony, idiocy & belief in the deep vernacular web. In Political Science: Vol. Volume 71. Post-digital cultures of the far right: Online actions and offline consequences in Europe and the US, (pp. 37-48). Transcript.
- Tuters, M., & Burton, A. G. (2020) (in press). The rebel yell: Alt-right audiences & burlesque traditionalism on YouTube. Canadian Journalism of Communications.
- Zannettou, S., Caulfield, T., De Cristofaro, E., Kourtelris, N., Leontiadis, I., Sirivianos, M., Stringhini, G., & Blackburn, J. (2017). The web centipede: Understanding how web communities influence each other through the lens of mainstream and alternative news sources. Proceedings of the 2017 Internet Measurement Conference on -IMC '17, 405-417. https://doi.org/10.1145/3131365.3131390 · DOI
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Pink slime journalism on Facebook: advertisement trends and political influence (2019–2024)
Lepird, C. S., Ng, L. H. X., & Carley, K. M. (2026) · Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory · doi:10.1007/s10588-026-09419-7
- Authors
- Burton, A. G., & Koehorst, D.
- Affiliations
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- ORCID
- Burton, Anthony G.
- Venue
- Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
- Published
- 2020-09-25
- ISSN
- 2766-1652 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3088516845
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 3.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Keywords
- political misinformation, online subcultures, 4chan, Reddit, hyperlinks
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