Misinformation on social media has become a horrendous problem in our society. Fact-checks on information often fall behind the diffusion of misinformation, which can lead to negative impacts on society. This research studies how different factors may affect the spread of fact-checks over the internet. We collected a dataset of fact-checks in a six-month period and analyzed how they spread on Twitter. The spread of fact-checks is measured by the total retweet count. The factors/variables include the truthfulness rating, topic of information, source credibility, etc. The research identifies truthfulness rating as a significant factor: conclusive fact-checks (either true or false) tend to be shared more than others. In addition, the source credibility, political leaning, and the sharing count also affect the spread of fact-checks. The findings of this research provide practical insights into accelerating the spread of the truth in the battle against misinformation online.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9188446 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-022-10296-z | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Framing fact-checks as a "confirmation" increases engagement with corrections of misinformation: a four-country study.
Sci Rep
February 2024
McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 20057, USA.
Previous research has extensively investigated why users spread misinformation online, while less attention has been given to the motivations behind sharing fact-checks. This article reports a four-country survey experiment assessing the influence of confirmation and refutation frames on engagement with online fact-checks. Respondents randomly received semantically identical content, either affirming accurate information ("It is TRUE that p") or refuting misinformation ("It is FALSE that not p").
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFake news, real risks: How online discussion and sources of fact-check influence public risk perceptions toward nuclear energy.
Risk Anal
November 2022
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
This study seeks to understand how online discussion, fact-checking, and sources of fact-checks will influence individuals' risk perceptions toward nuclear energy when they are exposed to fake news. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design, 320 participants were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions. Results showed an interaction effect between online discussion and exposure to fact-checking, in which online discussion lowered individuals' risk perception toward nuclear energy when a fact-check was unavailable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCombating Misinformation by Sharing the Truth: a Study on the Spread of Fact-Checks on Social Media.
Inf Syst Front
June 2022
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA.
Misinformation on social media has become a horrendous problem in our society. Fact-checks on information often fall behind the diffusion of misinformation, which can lead to negative impacts on society. This research studies how different factors may affect the spread of fact-checks over the internet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhy Do Citizens Share COVID-19 Fact-Checks Posted by Chinese Government Social Media Accounts? The Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
September 2021
College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
Widespread misinformation about COVID-19 poses a significant threat to citizens long-term health and the combating of the disease. To fight the spread of misinformation, Chinese governments have used official social media accounts to participate in fact-checking activities. This study aims to investigate why citizens share fact-checks about COVID-19 and how to promote this activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDemographics and topics impact on the co-spread of COVID-19 misinformation and fact-checks on Twitter.
Inf Process Manag
November 2021
Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, United Kingdom.
Correcting misconceptions and false beliefs are important for injecting reliable information about COVID-19 into public discourse, but what impact does this have on the continued proliferation of misinforming claims? Fact-checking organisations produce content with the aim of reducing misinformation spread, but our knowledge of its impact on misinformation for particular topics and demographics is limited. In this article, we explore the relation between misinformation and fact-checking spread during the COVID-19 pandemic for different topics, user demographics and attributes. We specifically follow misinformation and fact-checks emerging from December 2019 until the 4th of January 2021 on Twitter.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!