I don’t trust them, Exploring Perceptions of Fact-checking Entities for Flagging Online Misinformation

Postdoctoral Researcher Hana Habib worked with two Fatima Fellows, Sara Elsharawy and Rifat Rahman, to help improve the design of interventions which aim to limit the spread of misinformation through online social media platforms.

Online misinformation, which often propagates hate against different groups, has had substantial societal consequences. As a result, platforms have introduced measures to alert users of news content that may be misleading or contain inaccuracies as a means to discourage them from sharing it. These interventions sometimes cite external sources, such as fact-checking organizations and news outlets, for providing assessments related to the accuracy of the content. However, it is unclear whether users trust the assessments provided by these entities and whether perceptions vary across different topics of news.

We conducted an online study with 655 US participants to explore user perceptions of eight categories of fact-checking entities across two misinformation topics, as well as factors that may impact users' perceptions. We found that participants' opinions regarding the trustworthiness and bias of the entities varied greatly, aligning largely with their political preference. However, just the presence of a fact-checking label appeared to discourage participants from sharing the headlines studied. Our results hint at the need for further exploring fact-checking entities that may be perceived as neutral, as well as the potential for incorporating multiple assessments in such labels.