Vincent, E., & Crisan, D. What our second measurement says about misinformation on major platforms in Europe.
Summary
This brief reports the second round of a repeated measurement effort tracking the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation on major online platforms operating in Europe. Using an exposure-weighted analysis of posts, the authors find that TikTok again exhibits the highest share of mis/disinformation content, with prevalence rising from roughly 20% in the first measurement to about 25% in the second. Across most platforms, low-credibility accounts continue to enjoy an engagement advantage over high-credibility accounts — a gap that has persisted or widened. The work positions itself within ongoing empirical monitoring of platform information integrity in Europe, likely tied to obligations under the EU Digital Services Act and the Code of Practice on Disinformation.
Key Contributions
- Provides longitudinal evidence on how mis/disinformation prevalence is evolving across major European platforms via repeated, comparable measurements.
- Documents clear platform-level differences, identifying TikTok as the worst performer.
- Quantifies a persistent engagement gap favoring low-credibility sources — directly relevant to regulatory and platform-accountability debates.
Methods
- Second-round (repeat) measurement study of mis/disinformation prevalence on major platforms in Europe.
- Exposure-weighted analysis of posts to estimate prevalence, allowing comparison against the first-round baseline.
- Cross-platform comparison of interaction levels between low-credibility and high-credibility accounts.
Findings
- TikTok shows the highest mis/disinformation prevalence at approximately 25% of exposure-weighted posts.
- TikTok’s prevalence rose by roughly 5 percentage points between the first and second measurement rounds.
- The interaction advantage of low-credibility over high-credibility accounts persisted or worsened on most platforms.
Connections
This measurement-driven, accountability-oriented approach to platform information integrity aligns with other empirical monitoring efforts of mis/disinformation prevalence and platform data access, such as Pierri2025-hm and DeVerna2025-dl. Its focus on the engagement advantage of low-credibility sources connects to work on how unreliable content spreads and gains traction on platforms, including Bak-Coleman2025-pm and Allen2025-ot.