Twitter study finds correcting misinformation may make problem worse

Researchers say getting publicly corrected by another Twitter user may only shifts people's attention away from accuracy to other social factors such as embarrassment. — dpa

Correcting misinformation on Twitter may only make the problem worse, according to a study. Researchers offered polite corrections complete with links to solid evidence, in replies to flagrantly false tweets about politics.

But they found this had negative consequences, leading to even less accurate tweets and greater toxicity from those being corrected. Lead author Dr Mohsen Mosleh, from the University of Exeter, said the findings were "not encouraging."