Fake news is created and spread by either those with ideological interests, such

as Russian agents, or computer-savvy individuals looking to make some money,

like Macedonian teenagers and certain suburban Americans. It’s not the newspaper
publishers this time.
Fake news or fabricated information that is patently false, has become a major
phenomenon in the context of Internet-based media. It has received serious attention in
a variety of fields, with scholars investigating the antecedents, characteristics, and
consequences of its creation and dissemination. Some are primarily interested in the
nature of misinformation contained in false news, so that we can better detect it and
distinguish it from real news. Others focus on the susceptibility of users—why we fall for
false news and how we can protect ourselves from this vulnerability. Both are geared
toward improving media literacy to protect consumers from false information.
Fake news is mostly used to manipulate public opinion for political or commercial
gain. But false reports are also regularly used as part of sensational headlines in the
form of clickbait, which aims to attract people to click through to linked websites and
generate advertising income. Phishing attempts also use simulated information and
abuse the trust of internet users. Seemingly authentic contact forms are used to collect
personal user data for the purpose of identity theft. Other common phenomena
are email hoaxes in the form of chain mail which threaten recipients with issues in case
they fail to share an email.
https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/online-marketing/social-media/what-is-fake-news/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002764219878224