Fake News on Instagram

The photo and video-sharing service, Instagram, has more than one billion active monthly users (Barrett, 2019).  It is the third most popular social media network, after Facebook and YouTube.  Barrett (2019) noted, “Instagram hasn’t received as much attention in the disinformation context as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, but it played a much bigger role in Russia’s 2016 election manipulation than most people realize” (p. 7).  Barrett observed that Instagram’s platform is ideally suited for memes, “which are photos combined with short, punchy text” (p. 7). 

This is an example of a fake news meme circulated on social media. It referred to Shakira (sic) law instead of Sharia law (Marshall, 2016).

Memes are a popular form of sharing false quotes or other propaganda.  Barrett cited a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2018, which stated that “Instagram was a significant front in the IRA’s [Internet Research Agency’s] influence operation” (p. 7).  The IRA is a Kremlin-backed Russian troll farm.  The report said IRA posts between 2016 and 2018 generated 187 million engagements on Instagram, far more than were on Facebook, which resulted in 76.5 million engagements.  One third-party fact-checker contracted by Facebook said that in his view, “The threat [of fake news] is greater not on Facebook, but on Instagram” (A. Duke, personal communication, October 4, 2019).  He said that memes containing falsehoods could be made in seconds and cost nothing to produce.