Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics,
Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Department of Economics and Statistics
No 4/2026: The Effect of Anonymity in Social Media on Fake News Sharing
Joakim Jansson () and Emma von Essen ()
Additional contact information
Joakim Jansson: Department of Economics and Statistics, Postal: Department of Economics and Statistics, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, 351 95 Växjö, Sweden
Emma von Essen: Uppsala University
Abstract: We study how anonymity affects fake-news sharing on social media using a natural experiment on Flashback, a large Swedish online discussion forum. In 2014, journalists obtained information that allowed them to identify users registered before March 2007, sharply increasing these users’ risk of public exposure while leaving later registrants unaffected. Using a difference-in-differences design on 1.98 million posts, we find that exposed users reduce references to fake-news sites by about one-quarter of the mean. The effect is concentrated in immigration and domestic-politics discussions and does not extend to legitimate newssources, suggesting that accountability reduces misinformation without reducing news sharing more broadly.
Keywords: online; anonymity; text data; fake news; machine learning
Language: English
40 pages, August 20, 2026
Full text files
26-04_Anonymity_Fake_News_Sharing.pdfFull text
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