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But fake content shared with malicious intent — distinct from a strong opinion that someone disagrees with — certainly doesn’t always come from outside the country.

“We do see local accounts being set up just for that specific reason, to target local issues,” Zabiuk said in an interview Friday.

Misinformation comes in many forms: from comments and posts, to memes and videos. It can look like an advertisement or even a news article. True ‘fake news’ is often characterized by an unflattering photo of the politician or figure being targeted, and is accompanied by an inflammatory headline, Zabiuk said.

He said the common characteristic of false information is that it evokes such a strong emotional reaction that it clouds a person’s ability to assess if what they’re seeing is factual.

“If you tell people something and you say it enough, and you say it with enough conviction and they start to feel it, then it becomes the truth in their world,” Zabiuk said. “And that’s really what trolling comes down to, just trying to make people believe what you’re saying. And it’s very effective.”

As troubling as the spread of misinformation can be, Zabiuk said that fully handing over the reins of online discourse to either government agencies or private companies in hopes of stamping malicious content out is a dangerous prospect.

“In a world of free communication, the internet presents a very difficult piece to try to control. The real question is, do we want to control it? Should we be monitoring, or do we need to find some other way to make people understand what is legitimate and what is not?” he said.