Title: Propagation from Deceptive News Sources: Who Shares, How Much, How Evenly, and How Quickly?,
Abstract: As people rely on social media as their primary sources of news, the spread
of misinformation has become a significant concern. In this large-scale study
of news in social media we analyze eleven million posts and investigate
propagation behavior of users that directly interact with news accounts
identified as spreading trusted versus malicious content. Unlike previous work,
which looks at specific rumors, topics, or events, we consider all content
propagated by various news sources. Moreover, we analyze and contrast
population versus sub-population behaviour (by demographics) when spreading
misinformation, and distinguish between two types of propagation, i.e., direct
retweets and mentions. Our evaluation examines how evenly, how many, how
quickly, and which users propagate content from various types of news sources
on Twitter.
Our analysis has identified several key differences in propagation behavior
from trusted versus suspicious news sources. These include high inequity in the
diffusion rate based on the source of disinformation, with a small group of
highly active users responsible for the majority of disinformation spread
overall and within each demographic. Analysis by demographics showed that users
with lower annual income and education share more from disinformation sources
compared to their counterparts. News content is shared significantly more
quickly from trusted, conspiracy, and disinformation sources compared to
clickbait and propaganda. Older users propagate news from trusted sources more
quickly than younger users, but they share from suspicious sources after longer
delays. Finally, users who interact with clickbait and conspiracy sources are
likely to share from propaganda accounts, but not the other way around.