Researchers Create Winning Strategy to Combat Vaccine Misinformation on X
A new in-depth analysis shows that users who reply to misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a positive attitude, politeness, and strong evidence are more likely to encourage others to disbelieve the incorrect information.
Georgia Tech
Researchers from three Georgia Tech schools found the most effective way to confront vaccine misinformation on the X platform. They also created a predictive tool to show users whether their reply will succeed in changing minds or backfire and reinforce the misinformation. It can also pinpoint well-meaning replies meant to contradict misinformation but that interfere with social correction.
A research paper with the full findings were presented last week at the ACM Web Science Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.
Like white blood cells attacking a virus, social media users have been known to band together and debunk online misinformation being spread online in a phenomenon researchers call social correction.
The success rate of social correction on most social media sites has not been determined. However, researchers now have a clearer picture of how successful user input can be on X.
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