Misinformation Warning Labels: Twitter's Soft Moderation Effects on COVID-19 Vaccine Belief Echoes
This addresses the problem of misinformation moderation on social media for public health, but it is incremental as it tests existing warning formats.
The study examined how Twitter's warning covers and tags affect the perceived accuracy of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, finding that warning covers reduce accuracy perceptions but tags do not, and belief echoes persist regarding vaccine safety and hesitancy.
Twitter, prompted by the rapid spread of alternative narratives, started actively warning users about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. This form of soft moderation comes in two forms: as a warning cover before the Tweet is displayed to the user and as a warning tag below the Tweet. This study investigates how each of the soft moderation forms affects the perceived accuracy of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Twitter. The results suggest that the warning covers work, but not the tags, in reducing the perception of accuracy of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Twitter. "Belief echoes" do exist among Twitter users, unfettered by any warning labels, in relationship to the perceived safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as the vaccination hesitancy for themselves and their children. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of usable security affordances for combating misinformation on social media.