Trend and fact-checking narratives on Twitter. Verification codes and fake news in the Procés riots (14-O)

Abstract

In a digital environment dominated by artificial intelligence, the influence of political leaders and audience activism, the emergence of misinformation and fake news define the agenda codes. A scenario in which the role of fact-checking agencies as propellers or detractors of the fake is also questioned. In a context defined by the continued general elections in Spain and the conflict of the independence of Catalonia, the Supreme Court Judgment on the trials of Procés (14-O) is known. A chain of citizen mobilizations floods the network. The general objective of the study is to know on Twitter the fake news about the Catalan riots, verification strategies and the level of impact and reaction of the public. We apply a triangular methodology of comparative content analysis and on a sample of tweets (n1=4500) we analyze the treatment of the hoaxes detected by the fact-checkers (n2=62). The results confirm that the authorship of the false news corresponds to accounts of individuals and that the strategies of fact-checking can favor the viralization more than the denial.