Online disinformation on Facebook: the spread of fake news during the Portuguese 2019 election

Baptista, João Pedro; Gradim, Anabela

doi:10.1080/14782804.2020.1843415

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In addition, the willingness to share fake news indicates that it is less than the willingness to share real news. Our results seem to be encouraging regarding the ability of the Portuguese electorate to distinguish fake news, at a time when online disinformation continues to be widespread in Portugal [11]. Our results also show that there is a relationship between the political ideology and the belief and spread of (fake) news, which has been pointed out by the literature as one of the main factors, along with partisanship [18,[103][104][105][106][107].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…In Portugal, fake news also seems to be aimed at the right wing, especially the farright audience, with racist, anti-system and anti-corruption speeches that target the left wing [11,53]. However, other studies have shown that both conservatives and liberals have a tendency to accept false information as long as this confirms their views.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Online disinformation has become part of the daily life of the reader/user of social media. Through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, fake news is widely disseminated [5][6][7][8], obtaining, in some cases, greater engagement (that is, shares, reactions and/or comments) than true popular news [4,[9][10][11]. In Portugal, the country where our study is centered, fake news is also a reality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Portugal, the country where our study is centered, fake news is also a reality. Baptista and Gradim (2020a) analyzed the activity of fake news pages on Facebook during the 2019 national elections and found that fake news obtained, on average, more shares per publication than newspaper pages on Facebook [11]. Regarding the research problem, the literature shows that many studies have been carried out in the scope of detecting and mitigating fake news and identifying existing disinformation websites [12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spread of fake news, during the various elections, has also been studied on Twitter [15][16][17] and Facebook [11,18,19]. Studies on filter bubbles or echo chambers have contributed to understanding the phenomenon of fake news [20][21][22] or how malicious bots and algorithms have contributed to the "success" or proliferation of fake news [23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case

Baptista

Correia²,

Gradim

et al. 2021

Publications

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The relationship between a subject’s ideological persuasion with the belief and spread of fake news is the object of our study. Departing from a left- vs. right-wing framework, a questionnaire sought to position subjects on this political-ideological spectrum and demanded them to evaluate five pro-left and pro-right fake and real news, totaling 20 informational products. The results show the belief and dissemination of (fake) news are related to the political ideology of the participants, with right-wing subjects exhibiting a greater tendency to accept fake news, regardless of whether it is pro-left or pro-right fake news. These findings contradict the confirmation bias and may suggest that a greater influence of factors such as age, the level of digital news literacy and psychological aspects in the judgment of fake news are at play. Older and less educated respondents indicated they believed and would disseminate fake news at greater rates. Regardless of the ideology they favor, the Portuguese attributed higher credibility to the sample’s real news, a fact that can be meaningful regarding the fight against disinformation in Portugal and elsewhere.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case

Baptista

Correia²,

Gradim

et al. 2021

Publications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Assessment of Accuracy, User Engagement, and Themes of Eating Disorder Content in Social Media Short Videos

2023

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ImportanceSocial media is simultaneously home to communities of users who promote eating disorders as a lifestyle and users who advocate for recovery. As studies have confirmed an association between exposure to pro–eating disorder content and engaging in disordered eating behaviors, an examination of the accuracy of and interactions with information shared in these complex and contradictory communities can provide insights into content available to users at risk.ObjectiveTo determine the associations among themes, accuracy of information, and user engagement of eating disorder content on a short video–sharing social media platform.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis qualitative study included a thematic analysis of a sample of 200 TikTok videos, as well as user engagement metrics and content creator characteristics, between February and June 2022. Data were analyzed from March to June 2022.Main Outcomes and MeasuresContent themes, accuracy of information, user engagement, and the associations among these factors were identified in a sample of eating disorder videos on a social media platform. Data were analyzed with Pearson χ2, analysis of variance, linear regression, and random permutation tests.ResultsAmong the 200 videos assessed, 124 (62.0%) covered prorecovery content, 59 (29.5%) included pro–eating disorder content, and 17 (8.5%) contained anti–eating disorder content. Thematic analysis revealed 4 high-level themes: (1) encouraging the development or sustainment of eating disorders, (2) sharing physical or emotional experiences with eating disorders, (3) sharing narratives of recovery, and (4) social support. While the results of Pearson χ2 test indicated that videos in the prorecovery domain contained more accurate content than videos categorized in the pro–eating disorder and anti–eating disorder domains (χ24 = 157.92; P &lt; .001), the results of analysis of variance demonstrated that there was no significant difference in user engagement between informative and misleading content (likes: F = 0.110; P = .95; comments: F = 2.031; P = .13; views: F = 0.534; P = .59; shares: F = 0.691; P = .50). Results of the 10 000 random permutation tests, in which all P values were between .40 and .60 regardless of the distances, suggested that there was no significant difference in user engagement among the 3 domains.Conclusions and RelevanceThis mixed-methods qualitative analysis of misleading eating disorder information on social media found that pro–eating disorder and prorecovery communities were prevalent. However, social media users in the prorecovery community created more informative than misleading content. Furthermore, the study found no significant difference between users’ engagement with accurate vs misleading videos, which may suggest that false information alone does not influence the virality of videos.

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Contextualizing Fake News

Tandoc¹

2022

Disinformation in the Global South

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Online disinformation on Facebook: the spread of fake news during the Portuguese 2019 election

Cited by 27 publications

References 46 publications

The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case

The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case

Assessment of Accuracy, User Engagement, and Themes of Eating Disorder Content in Social Media Short Videos

Contextualizing Fake News

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