![]() Researchers at the Columbia Journalism Review identified “pink slime” news sites as a new technique through which political misinformation is spread (Bengani, 2019). Our findings suggest that audiences in these spaces are resistant to low-quality misinformation, yet support and popularize alternative political discourses that subtly perpetuate misinformation and conspiratorial politics. Specifically, our research examines the spread of misinformation from the first campaign announcement by a mainstream Democratic candidate (Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on January 11, 2019) until March 25, 2020. We chose 4chan and Reddit for our study because their oppositional subculture, oriented around “keeping alive the original spirit of the web” (Tuters 2019), has been credited with the rise of the so-called “alt-right” and the perpetuation of political misinformation (Zannettou et al., 2017 Hagen, Burton et. Our study focuses on the circulation of misinformation on two subcultural platforms that gained attention for spreading misinformation during the latter stages of the 2016 U.S. The 2020 US election season marks the first in the country where concern about mis- and disinformation has been at the forefront of media and political discourse from the outset. Platform regulation cannot be performed effectively in a siloed atmosphere-the sharing and circulation of misinformation extends beyond any one platform’s regulatory powers.Users of these spaces are highly vigilant when it comes to avoiding the sharing and consuming low-quality, algorithmically generated misinformation. ![]() ![]() YouTube and its audiovisual affordances are a key source of information, and subcultural political discourses amplify the misinformative claims of many of its alternative news and social commentary channels.On subcultural platforms, partisan information and “fringe perspectives” comprise a significant portion of the information exchanged within political discourses.How can we quantify and qualify the degree that “alternative influence networks” proliferate on these sites?.To what extent do U.S.-based political boards and forums on 4chan and Reddit share misinformation and “junk” content? Are algorithmically generated imposter news websites among the misinformation that circulates?.
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