Language Alternation in Online Communication with Misinformation

摘要

Misinformation has attracted widespread research attention owing to the importance and challenges of addressing the problem. Despite the progress in developing computational methods for misinformation detection and identifying psycholinguistic factors and network properties of misinformation, there is a lack of understanding of language alternation in online misinformation communication. This research aims to address the literature gap by answering several key questions regarding language alternation in communicating misinformation online. Based on the analysis of structured and un-structured survey responses, the results of this study show that it is fairly common for speakers of English as a second language to alternate languages in communicating misinformation online. In addition, it identifies the motives and impacts of such behavior. The findings of this study point to a new avenue for addressing the challenges of detecting online misinformation.