Talk: How Does Fact-checking Affect News Engagement, 11/22

Social media platforms have begun to counter false news by integrating fact-checking services. These fact checkers verify posts’ content and inform users about the posts’ veracity before engaging with them. While the efficacy of fact-checking on users has been studied in prior literature, little attention has been paid to the factors that determine the effectiveness of fact-checking (e.g., fact-checking timeliness or reputation of the poster) to sway user reactions. Our multi-method study leverages the high external validity of observational data from Twitter (Study 1) complemented by the high internal validity of experimental data (Study 2) to build insights into how fact-checking methods and poster attributes affect news engagement (i.e., willingness to read, talk, comment, and share). 

We find when fact-checking flags news as false significantly decreases news engagement and that fact-checking timeliness and poster reputation moderate the effect of fact-checking. Moreover, we find that fact-checking affects news engagement by influencing users’ evaluation of the news believability and shareability. Our findings enrich the understanding of the impact of fact-checking on users’ engagement with news and suggest managerial implications for reducing false news engagement.