Twitter and TikTok Are Leaders When It Comes To Spreading Misinformation, New Study Finds

The Integrity Institute has released a new report that went into detail about how so many measures were being taken to keep tabs on misinformation. The findings highlighted by the advocacy group were a real eye-opener for many.

Different social media apps were amplifying such false content without any form of check and balance in play. And in terms of who takes the lead in the digital world, well, the answer went to platforms like Twitter and TikTok.

The new report conducted by the Integrity Institute sheds light on the comparisons made between various apps and those that are a part of the International Fact-Checking Network. All posts that were fake were outlined

A lot of posts were analyzed and common topics that were seen to be full of misinformation included the likes of COVID-19, the travel rules for the pandemic, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also the elections in the US.

Twitter is given the heading of being the biggest center for misinformation and how much the app is known for amplifying the matter too by several folds. A lot of this stems from posts on the app and that ends up causing a massive wildfire online due to the great number of harmful and untrue information facts out there.

Some even tend to believe such well-crafted lies and that provides so much more engagement than the usual content that people call true. After all, such leading apps tend to put more of their focus on virality and their algorithms pick it up and amplify it more.

Tweets spread like wildfire and we’ve seen that happen in front of our eyes on several occasions.

Another interesting feature from this report is linked to how Facebook is actually the platform with the most misinformation being generated but it amplified it at a very low rate as compared to Twitter.

Other than that, it’s important to recall how sharing things on the platform is so much easier than sharing things on Facebook. It’s all thanks to the seamless design that Twitter has in place.

But Facebook is trying to get there. It is working hard to make the copycat version of TikTok’s video offering called Reels. It’s been greatly successful on Instagram and Meta hopes the same would happen here.

Instagram had the lowest rate of amplification. But YouTube’s score wasn’t even calculated because there was not enough data present.


Read next: Fewer Americans Are Worried About Digital Privacy in 2022
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