"Online personal messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are now hugely popular around the world. Yet their role in the spread and social correction of misinformation remains under-researched. We carried out in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the UK public (N = 102) to exp ... lore how social relationships and technological design interact and foster norms regulating how people respond when their everyday social ties share misinformation on these platforms. Conceptualizing messaging as hybrid public-interpersonal communication, we develop a framework that situates online political talk in the context of everyday social interaction. We show that, among our participants, a norm of conflict avoidance is particularly powerful on these platforms and makes people reluctant to speak out. Conflict avoidance should therefore be taken seriously as a contributor to the diffusion of misinformation in everyday life. Policymakers and other stakeholders, including news organizations, should explore new, tailored ways to empower citizens to challenge misinformation in these important online spaces, where automated and algorithmic interventions are impossible." (Abstract) more

"We propose deception as a bridging concept that will enhance the study of misinformation, disinformation, and misperceptions. As we set it out here, the concept integrates insights from multiple social science disciplines and uniquely connects actors’ intentions, information, and attitudinal or b ... ehavioral outcomes. A focus on deception will enrich research that describes the existence of false and misleading information but stops short of identifying their influence. Equally, through its focus on how actors’ deceptive strategies are important in attempts to exercise power, it can augment the study of the cognitive and attitudinal biases that render people susceptible to misperceptions. We identify the main themes in the study of deception: media-systemic distortions in information supply; the relational interactions that both produce and activate cognitive biases; and the attributes, strategies, and techniques of deceptive entities. We conclude with a summary typology of 10 principal variables and their 57 focal indicators." (Abstract) more