The Effect of Platform Intervention Policies on Fake News Dissemination and Survival: An Empirical Examination
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Ng, Ka Chung; Tang, Jie; Lee, Dongwon
署名单位：
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; University of Hong Kong
刊物名称：
JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
ISSN/ISSBN：
0742-1222
DOI：
10.1080/07421222.2021.1990612
发表日期：
2021
页码：
898-930
关键词：
identifying influential nodes
Social media
Information diffusion
online
COMMUNICATION
preferences
uncertainty
networks
tweets
rumor
摘要：
Fake news on social media has become a serious problem, and social media platforms have started to actively implement various interventions to mitigate its impact. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of two platform interventions, namely a content-level intervention (i.e., a fake news flag that applies to a single post) and an account-level intervention (i.e., a forwarding restriction policy that applies to the entire account). Collecting data from China's largest social media platform, we study the impact of a fake news flag on three fake news dissemination patterns using a propensity score matching method with a difference-in-differences approach. We find that implementing a policy of using fake news flag influences the dissemination of fake news in a more centralized manner via direct forwards and in a less dispersed manner via indirect forwards, and that fake news posts are forwarded more often by influential users. In addition, compared with truthful news, fake news is disseminated in a less centralized and more dispersed manner and survives for a shorter period after a forwarding restriction policy is implemented. This study provides causal empirical evidence of the effect of a fake news flag on fake news dissemination. We also expand the literature on platform interventions to combat fake news by investigating a less studied account-level intervention. We discuss the practical implications of our results for social media platform owners and policymakers.