IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-55868-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differential impact from individual versus collective misinformation tagging on the diversity of Twitter (X) information engagement and mobility

Author

Listed:
  • Junsol Kim

    (University of Chicago)

  • Zhao Wang

    (University of Chicago)

  • Haohan Shi

    (Northwestern University)

  • Hsin-Keng Ling

    (University of Michigan)

  • James Evans

    (University of Chicago
    University of Chicago
    Santa Fe Institute)

Abstract

Fears about the destabilizing impact of misinformation online have motivated individuals and platforms to respond. Individuals have increasingly challenged others’ online claims with fact-checks in pursuit of a healthier information ecosystem and to break down echo chambers of self-reinforcing opinion. Using Twitter (now X) data, here we show the consequences of individual misinformation tagging: tagged posters had explored novel political information and expanded topical interests immediately prior, but being tagged caused posters to retreat into information bubbles. These unintended consequences were softened by a collective verification system for misinformation moderation. In Twitter’s new feature, Community Notes, misinformation tagging was peer-reviewed by other fact-checkers before revelation to the poster. With collective misinformation tagging, posters were less likely to retreat from diverse information engagement. Detailed comparison demonstrated differences in toxicity, sentiment, readability, and delay in individual versus collective misinformation tagging messages. These findings provide evidence for differential impacts from individual versus collective moderation strategies on the diversity of information engagement and mobility across the information ecosystem.

Suggested Citation

  • Junsol Kim & Zhao Wang & Haohan Shi & Hsin-Keng Ling & James Evans, 2025. "Differential impact from individual versus collective misinformation tagging on the diversity of Twitter (X) information engagement and mobility," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-55868-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-55868-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-55868-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-55868-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heidi Ledford, 2023. "Researchers scramble as Twitter plans to end free data access," Nature, Nature, vol. 614(7949), pages 602-603, February.
    2. Feng Shi & Yongren Shi & Fedor A. Dokshin & James A. Evans & Michael W. Macy, 2017. "Millions of online book co-purchases reveal partisan differences in the consumption of science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9, April.
    3. Feng Shi & Misha Teplitskiy & Eamon Duede & James A. Evans, 2019. "The wisdom of polarized crowds," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 329-336, April.
    4. Mohsen Mosleh & David G. Rand, 2022. "Measuring exposure to misinformation from political elites on Twitter," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Saumya Bhadani & Shun Yamaya & Alessandro Flammini & Filippo Menczer & Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia & Brendan Nyhan, 2022. "Political audience diversity and news reliability in algorithmic ranking," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(4), pages 495-505, April.
    6. Mohsen Mosleh & David G. Rand, 2022. "Author Correction: Measuring exposure to misinformation from political elites on Twitter," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-1, December.
    7. Kai-Cheng Yang & Emilio Ferrara & Filippo Menczer, 2022. "Botometer 101: social bot practicum for computational social scientists," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 1511-1528, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. François t'Serstevens & Roberto Cerina & Giulia Piccillo, 2024. "Mapping the Risk of Spreading Fake-News via Wisdom-of-the-Crowd & MrP," CESifo Working Paper Series 11138, CESifo.
    2. Max Falkenberg & Fabiana Zollo & Walter Quattrociocchi & Jürgen Pfeffer & Andrea Baronchelli, 2024. "Patterns of partisan toxicity and engagement reveal the common structure of online political communication across countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Fabio Carrella & Segun T. Aroyehun & Jana Lasser & Almog Simchon & David Garcia & Stephan Lewandowsky, 2025. "Different honesty conceptions align across US politicians' tweets and public replies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Diletta Abbonato, 2024. "Public sentiments on the fourth industrial revolution: An unsolicited public opinion poll from Twitter," Papers 2411.14230, arXiv.org.
    5. Steve Rathje & Jon Roozenbeek & Jay J. Bavel & Sander Linden, 2023. "Accuracy and social motivations shape judgements of (mis)information," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(6), pages 892-903, June.
    6. Keusch, Florian & Pankowska, Paulina & Cernat, Alexandru & Bach, Ruben L., 2023. "Do you have two minutes to talk about your data? Willingness to participate and nonparticipation bias in Facebook data donation," SocArXiv n9rx3_v1, Center for Open Science.
    7. Duede, Eamon & Teplitskiy, Misha & Lakhani, Karim & Evans, James, 2024. "Being together in place as a catalyst for scientific advance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    8. Iandoli, Luca & Primario, Simonetta & Zollo, Giuseppe, 2021. "The impact of group polarization on the quality of online debate in social media: A systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Benjamin Monnery & François-Charles Wolff, 2023. "Is participatory democracy in line with social protest? Evidence from the French Yellow Vests movement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 283-309, October.
    10. Alex Luscombe & Kevin Dick & Kevin Walby, 2022. "Algorithmic thinking in the public interest: navigating technical, legal, and ethical hurdles to web scraping in the social sciences," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1023-1044, June.
    11. Eugen Dimant, 2020. "Hate Trumps Love: The Impact of Political Polarization on Social Preferences," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 029, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    12. Saumya Bhadani & Shun Yamaya & Alessandro Flammini & Filippo Menczer & Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia & Brendan Nyhan, 2022. "Political audience diversity and news reliability in algorithmic ranking," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 6(4), pages 495-505, April.
    13. Fehder, Daniel & Teodoridis, Florenta & Raffiee, Joseph & Lu, Jino, 2024. "The partisanship of American inventors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(7).
    14. Andres Karjus & Christine Cuskley, 2024. "Evolving linguistic divergence on polarizing social media," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Galetsi, Panagiota & Katsaliaki, Korina & Kumar, Sameer, 2022. "The medical and societal impact of big data analytics and artificial intelligence applications in combating pandemics: A review focused on Covid-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    16. Jon Atwell & Marlon Twyman II, 2023. "Metawisdom of the Crowd: How Choice Within Aided Decision Making Can Make Crowd Wisdom Robust," Papers 2308.15451, arXiv.org.
    17. Kai Ruggeri & Bojana Većkalov & Lana Bojanić & Thomas L. Andersen & Sarah Ashcroft-Jones & Nélida Ayacaxli & Paula Barea-Arroyo & Mari Louise Berge & Ludvig D. Bjørndal & Aslı Bursalıoğlu & Vanessa Bü, 2021. "The general fault in our fault lines," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 1369-1380, October.
    18. Wenkai Zhou & Chi Zhang & Linwan Wu & Meghana Shashidhar, 2023. "ChatGPT and marketing: Analyzing public discourse in early Twitter posts," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(4), pages 693-706, December.
    19. Sabina J Sloman & Daniel M Oppenheimer & Simon DeDeo, 2021. "Can we detect conditioned variation in political speech? two kinds of discussion and types of conversation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-28, February.
    20. Kunhao Yang & Mengyuan Fu, 2024. "Polarized collaboration benefits knowledge production: empirical analyses of the mediating effect of co-production pattern in Wikipedia articles on climate change," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 2677-2699, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-55868-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.