In late August, roughly five weeks before Americans went to the polls, a story appeared in The New York Times reporting new data about the reach of fringe US conservative outlets on Facebook. The numbers were staggering.
Posts by far-right news site Breitbart had been shared three times as often as posts from the official pages of every Democratic member of the US senate combined in the previous 30 days. Conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro had chalked up 56 million interactions, more than the main pages of ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR put together.
Reporting the findings, New York Times technology correspondent Kevin Roose urged caution on Democrats who thought Joe Biden would coast to victory. "What," Roose asked, "if Facebook is the 'silent majority?'"
