I2SC Lecture Series (Recording): Kiran Garimella (Computer Science, Rutgers University), Misinformation and Hate speech on WhatsApp - Insights from a large-scale data donation study
Date: January 24, 2025
Abstract:
In this talk, I will present a study looking at the prevalence of misinformation, political propaganda and hate speech on WhatsApp. Using a large WhatsApp data donation program in India and Brazil covering thousands of users, we systematically analyze private group messages to understand content prevalence, virality, and user profiles in problematic content spread. Our analysis from data in India shows a high prevalence of political content, with significant misinformation and hate speech against Muslims. This misinformation was notably prevalent in caste-based groups and had been previously debunked by fact-checkers, indicating a failure of fact-checks to reach these groups. This research is the first quantitative analysis of everyday WhatsApp use and highlights challenges with end-to-end encrypted platforms. It provides a baseline for developing moderation policies to combat misinformation and promote responsible use of encrypted communication channels. The study also develops novel data donation methods and tools to collect representative samples from hard to study platforms. These approaches can be scaled to other platforms to enable data collection in the post API age.
You can watch the recording of the talk below.
