Microblog credibility indicators regarding misinformation of genetically modified food on Weibo

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 1;16(6):e0252392. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252392. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

The considerable amount of misinformation on social media regarding genetically modified (GM) food will not only hinder public understanding but also mislead the public to make unreasoned decisions. This study discovered a new mechanism of misinformation diffusion in the case of GM food and applied a framework of supervised machine learning to identify effective credibility indicators for the misinformation prediction of GM food. Main indicators are proposed, including user identities involved in spreading information, linguistic styles, and propagation dynamics. Results show that linguistic styles, including sentiment and topics, have the dominant predictive power. In addition, among the user identities, engagement, and extroversion are effective predictors, while reputation has almost no predictive power in this study. Finally, we provide strategies that readers should be aware of when assessing the credibility of online posts and suggest improvements that Weibo can use to avoid rumormongering and enhance the science communication of GM food.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Communication*
  • Food, Genetically Modified*
  • Information Dissemination
  • Social Media*

Grants and funding

JJ received a National Social Science Foundation of China(18CXW027), and CN received a Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China(19ZDA324). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.