ABSTRACT
News exposure on Facebook does not occur at random: it comes from users’ friends who share links, from paid promotions by media companies, and from posts by pages liked by users. This analysis considers the specific curated flows that result from liking public Facebook pages for national news sources and whether partisanship selective exposure drives individuals’ choices of which outlets to follow. Results show that individuals like Facebook pages for national news sources in a manner consistent with their preexisting political beliefs. Furthermore, partisanship predicts the overall bias in Facebook pages liked by subjects. Several additional patterns emerge that are unique to Republicans: Republicans like a much higher share of like-minded sources than Democrats, and as they like more Facebook pages for national news, their political bias in national news pages liked increases. This asymmetric filter bubble may help explain the spread of viral disinformation during the 2016 election and has deleterious consequences for deliberative democracy.
