Viral misinformation on social media is analyzed as a market system where profit-driven actors disrupt public debate. Understanding this market is key to combating online misinformation.

Public debate is increasingly disrupted by viral misinformation circulating on social media. Behind this sensationalist content regularly lie actors driven by pure profit. To truly understand the spread of online misinformation, author and academic Carlos Diaz Ruiz suggests it must be analysed as the outcome of a market system in its own right.