More Disinformation on X Following Musk's Takeover

Man sieht die Hände einer jungen Frau, die das Handy hält und darin Nachrichten liest.

Disinformation about the war in Ukraine increased significantly during Twitter’s transition to X. This is shown by a new study conducted by researchers at the ZEW in Mannheim, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the University of Mannheim, with the participation of Mannheim-based computer scientist Prof. Dr. Heiko Paulheim.

This text was translated from German by AI / DeepL Pro.

As part of the study, nearly two million English-language tweets and 6.5 million retweets from the spring of 2023 were analyzed. The analysis revealed that just 0.08 percent of accounts were responsible for nearly one-third of moderate-to-severe disinformation. These accounts particularly frequently spread narratives such as the delegitimization of Ukraine or the reversal of perpetrator and victim roles.

The researchers also identified a correlation between changes to platform rules and the spread of misinformation. Notable spikes occurred, among other times, in early April 2023, after X had relaxed reach restrictions for state-controlled media. The creation of new accounts specifically designed to spread disinformation also shows noticeable spikes. For example, on the very day Twitter was officially acquired by Elon Musk, over 2,400 such accounts were created—more than 60 times the daily average.

“To analyze this enormous amount of data, we trained an artificial intelligence model to distinguish between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian posts,” explains Prof. Dr. Heiko Paulheim of the University of Mannheim. According to Paulheim, the result was a highly effective model capable of identifying different disinformation narratives in posts on X, thereby enabling comparisons over time—such as before and after a change in platform rules.

The subsequent analysis shows that the production and dissemination of pro-Russian disinformation is concentrated among a small number of closely interconnected accounts. “Such core networks play a central role in the spread of misinformation,” says the computer scientist. The study also highlights how significantly changes in platform governance can influence the dynamics of disinformation.

Go to the study: Russian Disinformation on X During Platform Governance Changes: Evidence from Spring 2023 (pdf)

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