Weaponising #Fakenews on Twitter: Generating Flak or Critiquing the Status Quo in the Trump Era?

AbstractThe phrase “fake news” has become a household term in recent years, a feat that can in large part be attributed to its popularity during the Trump presidency. Utilising social media platforms such as Twitter, the former president and his followers used the hashtag #FakeNews to attack politicians, civic leaders, as well as media organisations with the goal of “draining the swamp.” This combination of anti-establishment rhetoric with the status quo embodied by the Office of the President raises questions about whether the rhetoric associated with the hashtag is genuine, citizen-driven critique or is in fact a form of flak, a critique of the news media produced by powerful organisations and governmental entities, as defined by the Propaganda Model (PM). This study offers an empirical analysis through a qualitative examination of social media posts using #FakeNews in conjunction with posts about immigration issues 2016–2020. Findings show that both pro-Trump and anti-Trump Twitter users utilise #FakeNews to attack the other side, obfuscate the issue, or double down on their stance, indicating that flak is systemically generated to distract citizens from effectively challenging the status quo.KEYWORDS: fake newsflakimmigrationPropaganda ModelTwitter DISCLOSURE STATEMENTNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Twitter changed its name to “X” in July 2023. Since the study was carried out prior to that date, and the platform is, at the time of revisions, still popularly known as Twitter, the decision was made to use the platform’s old name.2 A post-analysis check revealed that a number of the accounts that posted these tweets had been removed by Twitter. The authors made the decision to keep these tweets in their dataset for two reasons. First, the users themselves did not delete their content. Second, the authors deemed the nature of the study and the content of the tweets significantly relevant, that keeping these tweets was more important than maintaining an up-to-date dataset.3 All the tweets quoted here are not the literal messages that were posted; they are paraphrased to protect the users’ identities. Original data is available upon reasonable request.4 In a November 12, 2019 tweet, Trump wrote, “Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from “angels.” Some are very tough, hardened criminals.” In fact, immigrants with a significant criminal record are not eligible for the DACA programme (Rupar Citation2019).Additional informationNotes on contributorsR. Alan BerryR. Alan Berry (corresponding author) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, Orono. Email: richard.berry@maine.eduJudith E. RosenbaumJudith E. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is a researcher in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, Orono.Amy M. CoreyAmy M. Corey, Ph.D., teaches communication at California State University, San Marcos.