The fake news stories that fooled liberals in 2016



Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close The fake news stories that fooled liberals in 2016 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

In the month since the Nov. 8 election, news pundits and average people alike have been debating exactly what led to Donald Trump's upset victory. And some disappointed liberals are looking for someone or something to blame for the win.

This analysis has placed a lot of attention on the relatively new phenomenon of online fake news. It seems that more and more people are starting to turn away from reputable, established news sources, and are instead trusting the buzzy (and often outright false) headlines they see on social media. In fact, a study by BuzzFeed News found that in the three months before the 2016 election, fake news stories surpassed real news stories in popularity and engagement on Facebook.

The discussion around fake news has largely framed it as a conservative problem, but these stories fool people on both sides of the aisle. Using BuzzFeed's data, we've compiled a list of the viral fake news stories that fooled liberals leading up to the election.

While a majority of the top-performing fake news stories leading up to the election had a pro-Trump bias, it's not just conservatives who are falling for fake news. In a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for BuzzFeed News, 71 percent of self-identifying Democrats surveyed mistook fake news headlines for real stories. Those who identify as Republicans fell for the false headlines at a higher rate, with 84 percent of those surveyed believing they were true.

But even if conservatives are consuming and sharing fake news at a higher rate, it is clear that liberals are not immune. Of the 60 top-performing fake news stories that BuzzFeed analyzed, 19 seemed to be targeting Hillary Clinton and/or Bernie Sanders supporters. One of the most popular fake election stories was from a website called 'Winning Democrats.' The article claimed Ireland would begin accepting refugees who wanted to flee America in case of a Trump presidential victory. The story racked up more than 800,000 engagements on Facebook.

There were also several articles geared specifically towards Sanders supporters that were each shared tens of thousands of times online despite being completely false. Some of the most popular headlines included, "Sanders campaign prepares for independent run in the general election" and "Pope Francis endorses Bernie Sanders."

Click through our slideshow above to see if you fell for one of these fake stories.