Abstract

Some scholars endorse the idea that a necessary condition for qualifying as fake news is being consumed by a minimum number of people. Call this requirement ‘the minimum audience condition’. I claim that each version of this condition is either incompatible with the damage that fake news does to our beliefs or unable to capture the case of outlandish fake stories. Drawing inspiration from an online scam, I then propose to distinguish the audience of fake news from its target. Lastly, I replace the minimum audience condition with a new requirement stating that fake news must be designed and published in a way that is conducive to the goal of persuading one or more target groups, regardless of its audience.