User Engagement with Digital Deception

Digital deception in online social networks, particularly the viral spread of misinformation and disinformation, is a critical concern at present. Online social networks are used as a means to spread digital deception within local, national, and global communities which has led to a renewed focus on the means of detection and defense. The audience (i.e., social media users) form the first line of defense in this process and it is of utmost importance to understand the who, how, and what of audience engagement. This will shed light on how to effectively use this wisdom-of-the-audience to provide an initial defense. In this chapter, we present the key findings of the recent studies in this area to explore user engagement with trustworthy information, misinformation, and disinformation framed around three key research questions (1) Who engages with mis- and dis-information?, (2) How quickly does the audience engage with mis- and dis-information?, and (3) What feedback do users provide? These patterns and insights can be leveraged to develop better strategies to improve media literacy and informed engagement with crowd-sourced information like social news.