ElectionRumors2022: A Dataset of Election Rumors on Twitter During the 2022 US Midterms

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive dataset of 1.81 million Twitter posts related to 135 election rumors during the 2022 US midterms, enabling analysis of rumor spread and misinformation dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a new, large-scale dataset of election rumors on Twitter, along with analysis methods and comparisons to previous election rumor datasets.

Findings

Identified key rumor spreading patterns during the 2022 midterms.

Compared 2022 rumors with 2020 election rumors to highlight differences.

Analyzed specific rumors about Arizona's election to understand misinformation dynamics.

Abstract

Understanding the spread of online rumors is a pressing societal challenge and an active area of research across domains. In the context of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, one influential social media platform for sharing information -- including rumors that may be false, misleading, or unsubstantiated -- was Twitter (now renamed X). To increase understanding of the dynamics of online rumors about elections, we present and analyze a dataset of 1.81 million Twitter posts corresponding to 135 distinct rumors which spread online during the midterm election season (September 5 to December 1, 2022). We describe how this data was collected, compiled, and supplemented, and provide a series of exploratory analyses along with comparisons to a previously-published dataset on 2020 election rumors. We also conduct a mixed-methods analysis of three distinct rumors about the election in Arizona, a particularly prominent focus of 2022 election rumoring. Finally, we provide a set of potential future directions for how this dataset could be used to facilitate future research into online rumors, misinformation, and disinformation.