Viral true tweets spread just as far as viral untrue tweets

Viral, existent tweets dispersed conscionable arsenic far, wide and heavy arsenic viral untrue tweets, according to caller probe from Cornell University that upends the prevailing presumption that untruths connected Twitter determination faster.

This uncovering helps illuminate wherefore definite mitigating strategies to curb disinformation connected Twitter haven't worked, portion besides suggesting that the astir effective strategy against fake news whitethorn statesman with users.

Building disconnected a landmark 2018 survey of 11 years' worthy of Twitter information that suggested falsehoods dispersed farther, faster, deeper and much broadly than truths, co-authors Jonas Juul, a postdoctoral researcher astatine Cornell University, and Johan Ugander, of Stanford University, honed successful connected the structural properties of Twitter "cascades"—a measurement of the paths viral tweets instrumentality from the archetypal poster connected down done the web via retweets.

By extension, cascades amusement a tweet's wide popularity; the much a tweet is shared, the bigger its cascade. The researchers examined cascades of the aforesaid size, meaning existent and untrue tweets that reached astir the aforesaid fig of users.

What they recovered is that the cascades of arsenic shared existent and untrue tweets were virtually indistinguishable from each other, to the grade that the researchers couldn't archer which tweet was existent oregon untrue conscionable by comparing cascades. While it's existent that radical are much prone to stock falsehoods than truths online—a improvement researchers person yet to explain—this latest uncovering tweaks the prevailing presumption that untruths moved much ravenously than truths done Twitter.

The findings person implications arsenic Twitter and different societal networks look to institute strategies to curb the dispersed of misinformation. If mendacious quality cascades looked otherwise from existent quality cascades, an algorithm could easy place and emblem imaginable misinformation.

The authors suggest amended integer literacy among users could marque radical little apt to stock untruths connected Twitter.

The study, "Comparing Information Diffusion Mechanisms by Matching connected Cascade Size," was published successful the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

---

---