1. ElectionRumors2022: A Dataset of Election Rumors on Twitter During the 2022 US Midterms
- Author
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Schafer, Joseph S, Duskin, Kayla, Prochaska, Stephen, Wack, Morgan, Beers, Anna, Bozarth, Lia, Agajanian, Taylor, Caulfield, Mike, Spiro, Emma S, and Starbird, Kate
- Subjects
Computer Science - Social and Information Networks ,Computer Science - Computers and Society - Abstract
Understanding the spread of online rumors is a pressing societal challenge and an active area of research across domains. In the context of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, one influential social media platform for sharing information -- including rumors that may be false, misleading, or unsubstantiated -- was Twitter (now renamed X). To increase understanding of the dynamics of online rumors about elections, we present and analyze a dataset of 1.81 million Twitter posts corresponding to 135 distinct rumors which spread online during the midterm election season (September 5 to December 1, 2022). We describe how this data was collected, compiled, and supplemented, and provide a series of exploratory analyses along with comparisons to a previously-published dataset on 2020 election rumors. We also conduct a mixed-methods analysis of three distinct rumors about the election in Arizona, a particularly prominent focus of 2022 election rumoring. Finally, we provide a set of potential future directions for how this dataset could be used to facilitate future research into online rumors, misinformation, and disinformation.
- Published
- 2024