Encounters with Visual Misinformation and Labels Across Platforms: An Interview and Diary Study to Inform Ecosystem Approaches to Misinformation Interventions

Social media platforms face rampant misinformation spread through multimedia posts shared in highly-personalized contexts [10, 11]. Foundational qualitative research is necessary to ensure platforms’ misinformation interventions are aligned with users’ needs and understanding of information in their own contexts, across platforms. In two studies, we combined in-depth interviews (n=15) with diary and co-design methods (n=23) to investigate how a mix of Americans exposed to misinformation during COVID-19 understand their information environments, including encounters with interventions such as Facebook fact-checking labels. Analysis reveals a deep division in user attitudes about platform labeling interventions, perceived by 7/15 interview participants as biased and punitive. As a result, we argue for the need to better research the unintended consequences of labeling interventions on factual beliefs and attitudes. Alongside these findings, we discuss our methods as a model for continued independent qualitative research on cross-platform user experiences of misinformation in order to inform interventions.