Accidental Exposure to (False) News on Chat Apps among Diaspora Communities

• In Event: Social Media Misinformation: The Role of Language, Identity, and Marginalization

Abstract

While social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter, remain popular platforms for sharing and discussing news in the United States, such communication are increasingly occurring within private chat apps that have grown elsewhere around the world (Newman et al., 2019). However, extant studies on social communication on news and politics have largely focused on Facebook and Twitter, and how private spaces within chat apps are used for these purposes is less systematically studied (Rossini et al., 2021). This paper will examine how diaspora communities in the United States—who rely heavily on chat apps for daily communications—engage in news and political talk on these platforms, and experience mis- and disinformation.

Previous research suggests that features of chat apps, which allow users to form small groups and limit the reach of shared messages, can increase privacy and control, facilitating political expression among minority groups (Khazraee & Losey, 2016; Velasquez et al., 2021). Simultaneously, popularity of encrypted chat apps has created a heightened concern about the spread of false information (Newman et al., 2021), because it is “impossible to know what is being shared” (Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017). Racial identity is an important vector of how individuals may be consuming and targeted by false content as part of daily communication on digital platforms (Freelon et al., 2022). However, few existing academic research describe the details of how different groups of color including diaspora communities—important and persuadable part of political constituencies—are affected by mis- and disinformation.

Focusing on three different diaspora communities in Texas – Chinese Americans in Houston, Indian Americans in Houston, and Mexican Americans in San Antonio – this paper will answer the following research questions:
- How do members of diasporic communities use chat apps for news consumption and political talk?
- How are they exposed to and affected by mis- and disinformation on chat apps?
- How do they respond to mis- and disinformation they encounter on chat apps?

Methodologically, this paper will rely on data collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted in the run-up to the 2022 U.S. midterm elections with a total of 61 people who identify as part of one of the three diaspora communities. The term “diaspora communities” is defined not by nationality or U.S. citizenship, but by how the members of these communities identify themselves, and the regular use of chat apps with people in the U.S. and in their country of cultural heritage who share the same socio-cultural context.

We show that:
- While our interviewees do not perceive chat apps as a trusted source of news, they are nevertheless being exposed to political news through a few family members and close friends who actively share news content, often in an unsolicited manner. Their political news consumption on chat apps is accidental, rather than voluntary.
- As a result, interviewees also noted that the flux of what they believe is mis- and disinformation is normalized on chat apps. Chat groups with their trusted family and close friends are the primary channels through which they are exposed to mis- and disinformation, as opposed to strangers or accounts with malicious intent—“democratically dysfunctional news sharing” (Chadwick et al., 2018) is rife on chat apps.
- Furthermore, the echo chamber of close family and friends within chat app spaces often makes it harder for people to correct false information or call out on those who spread it, eventually resulting in a withdrawal from political conversation altogether.

In sum, this paper will add to the existing literature on the use of chat app in news consumption and political talk by delineating the experiences of its users with nuances. This paper will also advance scholarship on disinformation and its impacts on minority communities, specifically Chinese Americans in Houston, Indian Americans in Houston, and Mexican Americans in San Antonio.

Authors

• Katlyn Glover, University of Texas at Austin

• Inga Kristina Trauthig, University of Texas at Austin

• Samuel Woolley, University of Texas at Austin

• Kayo Mimizuka, University of Texas at Austin