The BuzzFeed-Webis Fake News Corpus 16 comprises the output of 9 publishers in a week close to the US elections. Among the selected publishers are 6 prolific hyperpartisan ones (three left-wing and three right-wing), and three mainstream publishers (see Table 1). All publishers earned Facebook’s blue checkmark, indicating authenticity and an elevated status within the network. For seven weekdays (September 19 to 23 and September 26 and 27), every post and linked news article of the 9 publishers was fact-checked by professional journalists at BuzzFeed. In total, 1,627 articles were checked, 826 mainstream, 256 left-wing and 545 right-wing. The imbalance between categories results from differing publication frequencies.

The corpus comprises the output of 9 publishers in a week close to the US elections. Among the selected publishers are 6 prolific hyperpartisan ones (three left-wing and three right-wing), and three mainstream publishers (see Table 1). All publishers earned Facebook’s blue checkmark, indicating authenticity and an elevated status within the network. For seven weekdays (September 19 to 23 and September 26 and 27), every post and linked news article of the 9 publishers was fact-checked by professional journalists at BuzzFeed. In total, 1,627 articles were checked, 826 mainstream, 256 left-wing and 545 right-wing. The imbalance between categories results from differing publication frequencies.

OverviewThe BuzzFeed dataset, officially known as the BuzzFeed-Webis Fake News Corpus 2016, comprises content from 9 news publishers over a 7-day period close to the 2016 US election. It was created to analyze the spread of misinformation and hyperpartisan content on social media platforms, particularly Facebook.Dataset CompositionNews Articles: The dataset includes 1,627 articles from various sources:826 from mainstream publishers256 from left-wing publishers545 from right-wing publishersFacebook Posts: Each article is associated with Facebook post data, including metrics like share counts, reaction counts, and comment counts.Comments: The dataset includes nearly 1.7 million Facebook comments discussing the news content.Fact-Check Ratings: Each article was fact-checked by professional journalists at BuzzFeed, providing veracity assessments.Key FeaturesPublisher Information: The dataset covers 9 publishers, including 6 hyperpartisan (3 left-wing and 3 right-wing) and 3 mainstream outlets.Temporal Aspect: The data was collected over seven weekdays (September 19-23 and September 26-27, 2016).Verification Status: All publishers included in the dataset had earned Facebook's blue checkmark, indicating authenticity and elevated status.Metadata: Includes various metrics such as publication dates, post types, and engagement statistics.Potential ApplicationsThe BuzzFeed dataset is valuable for various research and analytical purposes:News Veracity Assessment: Researchers can use machine learning techniques to classify articles based on their factual accuracy.Social Media Analysis: The dataset allows for studying how news spreads on platforms like Facebook, including engagement patterns.Hyperpartisan Content Study: It enables analysis of differences between mainstream and hyperpartisan news sources.Content Strategy Optimization: Media companies can use insights from the dataset to refine their content strategies.Audience Analysis: The data can be used for demographic analysis and audience segmentation.This dataset provides a comprehensive snapshot of news dissemination and engagement on social media during a crucial period, making it a valuable resource for researchers, data scientists, and media analysts studying online information ecosystems.