Misinformation on social media: The development of user behavior survey

Social media is now accepted as a dominant source of sharing news and political activism on the internet. However, this has given way to an increase in sharing fake news and misinformation online. While there have been many attempts to model information cascading, the propagation of misinformation online and means of combating misinformation, there has not been any data that can be used to enhance the understanding and improve these models. Several researchers have suggested variables and assign proposed values in order to develop a better understanding; these values are considered hypothetical. Using a simulated social media interface with factual and none factual informational posts, this paper designs a survey that can study the users’ interaction with the page, trust in online and third-party tools, and a scale survey to collect the data needed regarding users’ behaviour. The outcome is a six-part survey. In parts one to three, the survey assesses users ‘Trust Scale’ in sharing of information and news on social media, behaviour online when viewing posts, and the impact of having an online tool that allows users to authenticate posts. In parts four to six, the survey assesses the trust people could have in such a tool, assessing trust in third-party checkers, and finally collecting demographic data for cross-analysis purposes.