Fake news can spread up to six times faster than normal news, according to Sarah Wiggins, partner corporate M&A of Linklaters London. What’s more, social media is a minefield, with bots generating around a quarter of traffic in many cases.

Wiggins, who spoke at the 9th edition of Linklaters’ Magenta Horizons conference at the Philharmonie on 15 January, regularly works on corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, and often with a cross-border element. She encouraged businesses to delve into their own strategies when it comes to fake news. 

Case study: Vinci

In November 2016, a fake press release circulated in Vinci’s name. The French construction firm’s shares plummeted around 20%. 

The press release included false financial information, as well as fake news about its CFO Christian Labeyrie. 

Despite the market panic, Vinci quickly responded by addressing the fact that it had been a victim of a hoax--all in under 25 minutes.

From Wiggins’ perspective, one of the best ways for companies to tackle a fake news crisis is to have pre-established crisis scenarios, teams and processes in place well in advance. And they shouldn't forget internal stakeholders either: communicating with them can be just as important as communicating with external ones.

(Re-)establishing trust

“The key thing, especially for CEOs, is they want to be on the front foot,” Wiggins said, but she encourages execs to take a step back to assess the situation before reacting too quickly. “Always make sure your information is correct before going out.” 

The worst fake news crisis is one which happens within a larger crisis, Wiggins said, but trust is one of the best tools to counter it. “Fake news is an example of people losing trust in systems. Try and establish trust or rebuild trust if in a crisis scenario--that is your best chance of stopping or repressing fake news.”