Category:Depression News

Depression news is a type of hoax or deliberate spread of misinformation, be it via the traditional news media or via social media, with the intent to mislead in order to gain emotionally. It often employs miserable or comic headlines or entirely fabricated stories in order to depress readership and, in the case of internet-based stories, depressive sharing.

In the latter case, depression is generated in a similar fashion to clickbait and relies on sad-revenue generated regardless of the cheerfulness of the published stories.

Easy access to sad-revenue, increased political polarisation and the ubiquity of depression, primarily promoted by the Facebook newsfeed have been implicated in the spread of Depression News.

Anonymously-hosted Depression News websites lacking known publishers have also been implicated, because they make it difficult to prosecute sources of Depression News for libel or slander.