Investigating Misinformation Dissemination on Social Media in Pakistan
This research addresses misinformation dissemination in Pakistan, particularly affecting low-literate and low-income populations, but it is incremental as it applies existing methods to a new regional context.
The study investigated the spread of fake news and misinformation on WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube in Pakistan, identifying common techniques like appeals to emotion and conspiracy theories used to make false content believable.
Fake news and misinformation are one of the most significant challenges brought about by advances in communication technologies. We chose to research the spread of fake news in Pakistan because of some unfortunate incidents that took place during 2020. These included the downplaying of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, and protests by right-wing political movements. We observed that fake news and misinformation contributed significantly to these events and especially affected low-literate and low-income populations. We conducted a cross-platform comparison of misinformation on WhatsApp, Twitter and YouTube with a primary focus on messages shared in public WhatsApp groups, and analysed the characteristics of misinformation, techniques used to make is believable, and how users respond to it. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to compare misinformation on all three platforms in Pakistan. Data collected over a span of eight months helped us identify fake news and misinformation related to politics, religion and health, among other categories. Common elements which were used by fake news creators in Pakistan to make false content seem believable included: appeals to emotion, conspiracy theories, political and religious polarization, incorrect facts and impersonation of credible sources.