Disinformation May Thrive as Transparency Deteriorates Across Social Media
The social media site X ceased offering free access to researchers in 2023 for the access necessary for large-scale research. Reddit also ended free access for large-scale research in 2023. Meta just replaced
CrowdTangle, its platform allowing journalists and researchers to monitor trends on Facebook and Instagram, with a replacement that is reportedly less transparent and less accessible. TikTok has not necessarily grown worse in this regard, reports Gordon Rinderknecht in his
RAND article, but its opaqueness has grown more consequential. These recent declines in transparency may blind researchers and the public to the effects of other changes in the social media ecosystem that are altering how disinformation is being spread. These include the continuing rise of influencer marketing, the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence and declining content moderation by social media platforms, itself a consequence of moderation becoming politically fraught.
https://www.rand.org
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