Messages with warning labels spread further and longer on Twitter than did those without labels before and after the 2020 presidential campaign, a new study finds.
The paper’s findings reveal how misinformation spreads across networks and point to need to improve content-moderation techniques
Before and after the 2020 presidential campaign, Twitter flagged hundreds of Donald Trump’s tweets as election misinformation, either attaching a warning label or blocking engagement with the tweet entirely.
Although blocking engagement effectively limited their spread, messages with warning labels spread further and longer on Twitter than did those without labels, according to a new study. Moreover, the blocked Twitter messages were posted more often and received more visibility than other messages on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.
The paper, authored by researchers at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP), appears in the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.
“These data cannot tell us whether Twitter’s warning labels worked or not,” says Zeve Sanderson, co-author of the paper and executive director of CSMaP. “It’s possible Twitter intervened on posts that were more likely to spread, or it’s possible Twitter’s interventions caused a backlash and increased their spread.”
“Nonetheless, the findings underscore how intervening on one platform has limited impact when content can easily spread on others,” added paper co-author and research scientist...
Read Full Story: https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2021/august/despite-warning-labels--trump-s-election-misinformation-tweets-s.html
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