According to a 2020 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans get news on digital devices, and more than half prefer to get it on a digital platform as social media expands in everyday life, the time spent and the amount of information we are exposed to increase, along with the amount of misinformation and disinformation.
With social media’s prevalence, creators and users are constantly shifting through information. According to Forbes Advisor, the average person spends around 145 minutes daily on social platforms. More users and more time spent mean people create and see misinformation daily, but how do platforms help users identify misinformation to curve its impact?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as social media usage surged, the average user was exposed to topics of false or misleading information globally as social interaction and connection shifted to predominately online spaces. According to Statistica, the most common issues involving misinformation were Covid-19 and politics.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter, he fired the team that addressed misinformation and gave unique distinction to subscriber posts without verifying user identity (one can now pay for a “blue check,” previously recognized as a user whose identity is verified); he created a chaotic landscape of misinformation. For example, according to a 2023 New York Times article, after Twitter got rid of the blue check, “…at least 11 new accounts began impersonating the Los Angeles Police Department,” and “more than 20 purported to be various agencies of the federal government.”
As misinformation spread on Twitter, Musk and his team had to tend to the platform’s now-marred reputation, so they created the Community Notes feature to fight misinformation. In short, Community Notes, previously known as Birdwatch, is a fact-checking procedure. According to X/Twitter’s current site, this feature aims to “create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts.” If a contributor views a post that they deem misinformed/incorrect, they can leave a note on that post. Eventually, if enough contributors from different points of view vote that the note is helpful, the note will be displayed publicly under the post. These notes do not represent the viewpoints of X/Twitter and cannot be modified by the platform. While this is a needed feature, it could be better. One of the main criticisms is that users could misuse and manipulate the feature, as it is crowdsourced.
With 1 billion monthly users worldwide, TikTok is one of the most used platforms. TikTok’s design, where future content is curated from past interactions similar in content, contributes to the rapid spread of misinformation. If a user engages with videos by creators who are providing intentionally misleading or dishonest content, the user will continue to get similar videos suggested to them.
In 2022, TikTok removed 102 million videos that were said to have violated the platform’s regulations to slow the spread of misinformation. They have also created “election centers” that help users find reputable information about candidates and voting locations. Like other platforms, they have collaborated with fact-checking organizations and implemented an automated moderation system that searches for community guidelines violations. While TikTok is working towards battling misinformation, according to a recent study, nearly 20% of videos found through the platform’s search engine contained misinformation.
Regarding the election, NewGaurd found that misinformation about politics is concerning on the site. For example, when searching terms concerning January 6, 2021, and the possibility of a stolen election on TikTok’s platform, six results contained false claims in the initial results. Health misinformation has also been an issue on the platform, with some content creators passing off misleading and untrue information to young audiences.
As users, we must pay attention to what we are consuming. Even if these platforms are making guidelines and rules, it is still required to double-check and be aware of what one is reading.
Olivia FM 
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