Internet Research: Volume 33 Issue 5

Guest editorial: The social, ethical, economic and political implications of misinformation

Giandomenico Di Domenico, Maria Teresa Borges-Tiago, Giampaolo Viglia, Yang Alice Cheng

Engaging with deepfakes: a meta-synthesis from the perspective of social shaping of technology theory

Pramukh Nanjundaswamy Vasist, Satish Krishnan

This study aims to establish a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of how individuals engage with deepfakes, focusing on limiting adverse effects and capitalizing on…

Examining the motivations of sharing political deepfake videos: the role of political brand hate and moral consciousness

Isha Sharma, Kokil Jain, Abhishek Behl, Abdullah Baabdullah, Mihalis Giannakis, Yogesh Dwivedi

Deepfakes are fabricated content created by replacing an original image or video with someone else. Deepfakes have recently become commonplace in politics, posing serious…

Norms or fun? The influence of ethical concerns and perceived enjoyment on the regulation of deepfake information

Minghui Li, Yan Wan

Deepfake information poses more ethical risks than traditional disinformation in terms of fraud, slander, rumors and other malicious uses. However, owing to its high entertainment…

“Is COVID-19 a hoax?”: auditing the quality of COVID-19 conspiracy-related information and misinformation in Google search results in four languages

Shakked Dabran-Zivan, Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Roni Shapira, Miri Yitshaki, Daria Dvorzhitskaia, Nir Grinberg

Accurate information is the basis for well-informed decision-making, which is particularly challenging in the dynamic reality of a pandemic. Search engines are a major gateway for…

Research on influencing factors and governance of disinformation dissemination on science and technology topics: an empirical study on the topic of “metaverse”

Xu Wang, Xin Feng, Jingyi Zhao

The online Question and Answer community is full of a large number of science and technology topics, the discussion and dissemination of which play an important role in promoting…

The diffusion process of product-harm misinformation on social media: evidence from consumers and insights from communication professionals

Zifei Fay Chen, Yang Cheng

This study aims to propose a model that delineated the diffusion process of product-harm misinformation on social media. Drawing on theoretical insights from cue diagnosticity and…

Who believes political fake news? The role of conspiracy mentality, patriotism, perceived threat to freedom, media literacy and concern for disinformation

Kate L. Daunt, Dominique A. Greer, Hyun Seung Jin, Isabella Orpen

Understanding individual susceptibility to political fake news is critical because fake news can target specific psychological profiles of vulnerable individuals. Consequently…

An empirical evaluation of the predictors and consequences of social media health-misinformation seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

Muhammad Riaz, Wu Jie, Mrs Sherani, Sher Ali, Fredrick Ahenkora Boamah, Yan Zhu

Drawing upon social cognitive theory, this study aims to investigate the potential predictors and consequences of social media health-misinformation seeking behavior during the…

You are lying! How misinformation accusations spread on Twitter

Ashish S. Galande, Frank Mathmann, Cesar Ariza-Rojas, Benno Torgler, Janina Garbas

Misinformation is notoriously difficult to combat. Although social media firms have focused on combating the publication of misinformation, misinformation accusations, an…

Online silence: why do people not challenge others when posting misinformation?

Selin Gurgun, Emily Arden-Close, Keith Phalp, Raian Ali

There is a scarcity of research studies on why people remain inactive when encountering and recognising misinformation online. The main aim of this paper is to provide a…

Implications of source, content, and style cues in curbing health misinformation and fake news

Louisa Ha, Debipreeta Rahut, Michael Ofori, Shudipta Sharma, Michael Harmon, Amonia Tolofari, Bernadette Bowen, Yanqin Lu, Amir Khan

To provide human judgment input for computer algorithm development, this study examines the relative importance of source, content, and style cues in predicting the truthfulness…

What's in the black box? How algorithmic knowledge promotes corrective and restrictive actions to counter misinformation in the USA, the UK, South Korea and Mexico

Myojung Chung

While there has been a growing call for insights on algorithms given their impact on what people encounter on social media, it remains unknown how enhanced algorithmic knowledge…

Combating misinformation with internet culture: the case of Brazilian public health organizations and their COVID-19 vaccination campaigns

Julian Marx, Beatriz Blanco, Adriana Amaral, Stefan Stieglitz, Maria Clara Aquino

This study investigates the communication behavior of public health organizations on Twitter during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil. It contributes to the…