Identifying Misinformation About Unproven Cancer Treatments on Social Media Using User-Friendly Linguistic Characteristics: Content Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Health misinformation, prevalent in social media, poses a significant threat to individuals, particularly those dealing with serious illnesses such as cancer. The current recommendations for users on how to avoid cancer misinformation are challenging because they require users to have research skills.

Objective

This study addresses this problem by identifying user-friendly characteristics of misinformation that could be easily observed by users to help them flag misinformation on social media.

Methods

Using a structured review of the literature on algorithmic misinformation detection across political, social, and computer science, we assembled linguistic characteristics associated with misinformation. We then collected datasets by mining X (previously known

SUBMITTER: Fridman I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11888050 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature