How much does it cost to create and spread fake news?

Russian state-controlled TV’s news broadcasts are seen as the key domestic weapon for Moscow in an information battle – Copyright AFP AFP photographer

How much does it cost to create and spread fake news or false narratives online? According to the firm ID Crypt Global, the answer depends on what scale of disruption a person wants to create.

Fake news and false narratives are commonplace online. They can be created by an individual sitting at home with their smartphone, by AI bots, or by large-scale operations in countries like Russia, India, and China, where hundreds of people are employed to fabricate and falsify news.

ID Crypt Global has estimated the cost of creating and spreading various types of fake news and false narratives in 2024 by analysing previous 2017 data published on the subject and adjusting the numbers for inflation. The original data sources were Trend-Micro: The Fake News Machine, and MIT Tech Review. The output has been passed onto Digital Journal.

The costs of fake news

This analysis reveals that to enlist the help of a so-called “click farm”, in which one server has the control capacity of 30 smartphones and can ‘click’ to artificially inflate the presence and therefore influence of certain posts, costs an estimated £4,922 (~$6000).

To manipulate an online petition with 100,000 fake votes or signatures will cost an estimated £1,064 (~$1200).

To generate 1 million fake YouTube views costs around £998 ($1,000), and to add 1,000 fake comments to a social media post each month is estimated to cost £250 ($300).

At the other end of the scale, there are less expensive options. To pay for a bot to produce 500 retweets costs just £2.00 ($3).

Furthermore, anyone can create their very own convincing fake news story for absolutely free via a website called Break Your Own News. Once this fake news story has been shared to social media, it can be spread far and wide despite having absolutely no relationship to truth.

More nefarious attempts at disinformation disinformation seek to manipulate decision-making at critical junctures such as a referendum or general election. These projects take around 12-months to execute, and their approach is multi-faceted. Starting costs here are in the region of £400,000 ($430,000).

Sometimes these sites use the publication of real news that links to the fake stuff. This is in an effort to blur lines between fiction and reality.

These less desirable aspects of the Internet indicate we are on the cusp of a Post-Truth era, especially with newer technologies like AI growing increasingly sophisticated.