Too Little, Too Late: Moderation of Misinformation around the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

TL;DR

This study analyzes Twitter's response to misinformation about the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, revealing limited moderation effectiveness and highlighting the need for improved anti-misinformation strategies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed empirical analysis of misinformation spread and moderation effectiveness during the conflict, with new insights into user behavior and platform response.

Findings

84% of misinformation tweets remain available

Users in the U.S. produce and consume most misinformation

Sanctioned tweets' retweet rates have stabilized

Abstract

In this study, we examine the role of Twitter as a first line of defense against misinformation by tracking the public engagement with, and the platforms response to, 500 tweets concerning the RussoUkrainian conflict which were identified as misinformation. Using a realtime sample of 543 475 of their retweets, we find that users who geolocate themselves in the U.S. both produce and consume the largest portion of misinformation, however accounts claiming to be in Ukraine are the second largest source. At the time of writing, 84% of these tweets were still available on the platform, especially those having an anti-Russia narrative. For those that did receive some sanctions, the retweeting rate has already stabilized, pointing to ineffectiveness of the measures to stem their spread. These findings point to the need for a change in the existing anti-misinformation system ecosystem. We propose several design and research guidelines for its possible improvement.