Taking the power back: How diaspora community organizations are fighting misinformation spread on encrypted messaging apps

Abstract

We applied a mixed-methods approach with the goal of understanding how Latinx and Asian diaspora communities perceive and experience the spread of misinformation through encrypted messaging apps in the United States. Our study consists of 12 in-depth interviews with leaders of relevant diaspora community organizations and a computer-assisted content analysis of 450,300 messages published on Telegram between July 2020 and December 2021. We found evidence of cross-platform misinformation sharing, particularly between Telegram, WhatsApp, and YouTube. The enclosed nature of encrypted messaging applications makes them a testing ground for misinformation narratives before these narratives are sent out to open platforms. Finally, YouTube is a central component of misinformation spread because much of the misinformation content spread in these communities is video-based.