Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions.

ABSTRACT: In response to intense pressure, technology companies have enacted policies to combat misinformation^1-4. The enforcement of these policies has, however, led to technology companies being regularly accused of political bias^5-7. We argue that differential sharing of misinformation by people identifying with different political groups^8-15 could lead to political asymmetries in enforcement, even by unbiased policies. We first analysed 9,000 politically active Twitter users during the US 2020 presidential election. Although users estimated to be pro-Trump/conservative were indeed substantially more likely to be suspended than those estimated to be pro-Biden/liberal, users who were pro-Trump/conservative also shared far more links to various sets of low-quality n

SUBMITTER: Mosleh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11485227 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature