When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries
2025/01/13 by Petter Törnberg, Juliana Chueri · 23 voices · 11 citations
Social Sciences · #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Media Influence and Politics #Social Media and Politics
paper · doi:10.1177/19401612241311886
Abstract
The spread of misinformation has emerged as a global concern. Academic attention has recently shifted to emphasize the role of political elites as drivers of misinformation. Yet, little is known of the relationship between party politics and the spread of misinformation—in part due to a dearth of cross-national empirical data needed for comparative study. This article examines which parties are more likely to spread misinformation, by drawing on a comprehensive database of 32M tweets from parliamentarians in 26 countries, spanning 6 years and several election periods. The dataset is combined with external databases such as Parlgov and V-Dem, linking the spread of misinformation to detailed information about political parties and cabinets, thus enabling a comparative politics approach to misinformation. Using multilevel analysis with random country intercepts, we find that radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinformation. Populism, left-wing populism, and right-wing politics are not linked to the spread of misinformation. These results suggest that political misinformation should be understood as part and parcel of the current wave of radical right populism, and its opposition to liberal democratic institution.
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- Misinformation isn't random - it's strategic. 🧵 In the first cross-national comparative study, we examine 32M tweets from politicians. We find that misinformation is not a general condition: it is [bsky, 6393 points, 161 comments]
- Important question: when and which political parties lie? This new publication is pretty clear in its findings: radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinf [bsky, 389 points, 12 comments]
- 3/ Two very accomplished researchers, @pettertornberg.com & Juliana Chueri, studied 32 million posts from politicians across 26 countries. What they found: spreading flat out lies is not a both sides [bsky, 62 points, 3 comments]
- Estudio revela que los partidos populistas de derecha radical son los principales difusores de desinformación en 26 países, analizaron 32 millones de tuits de parlamentarios durante seis años. Paper: [bsky, 32 points, 3 comments]
- New: When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries "...we find that radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinformati [bsky, 25 points, 0 comments]
- 🧐 Un estudio revela que los partidos populistas de derecha radical son los principales difusores de desinformación en 26 países, analizando 32 millones de tuits de parlamentarios durante seis años. [bsky, 8 points, 0 comments]
- The takeaway from the research paper is rather unambiguous: “…we find that radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinformation.” doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 8 points, 0 comments]
- Non-broken link: doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 8 points, 2 comments]
- "We find that radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinformation. Populism, left-wing populism, and right-wing politics are not linked to the spread of mis [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
- Etude néerlandaise effectué par des chercheurs en sciences politique sur plusieurs pays européens publié dans un journal réputé : doi.org/10.1177/1940... Libération ne fait que repartager l'étude en [bsky, 1 points, 5 comments]
- The original paper - doi.org/10.1177/1940... It's part of wanting to live in their own echo chamber. Without any challenges to their belief system. [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- J'aime bien citer cette étude : Törnberg, P., & Chueri, J. (2025). When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 0(0) [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]
- Interesante.. desinformación no es inherente de las redes sociales sino una estrategia política de las ultraderechas, según está investigación internacional doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- In case it wasn't already painfully obvious - an analysis of tweets of politicians shows right-wing groups spread misinformation more that the left: doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- And since political ideologies and misinformation can also be correlated (see doi.org/10.1177/1940...), wouldn’t that mean that there are pathological political ideologies, made of CTBs, that are a re [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Eu acho que sou muito burro pra entender o artigo mas deve ser um bom material pro @normosek.bsky.social, pro @emiliogarcia.bsky.social, pro @atila.bsky.social e pra quem mais interessar: doi.org/10. [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- That is wrong. There are some very distinct and interesting differences in how populism is expressed on the left and right sides of the political spectrum. Here's a study exploring one of them: doi. [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Disponible ici en libre accès. doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Again: doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- doi.org/10.1177/1940... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- When Do Parties Lie? Misinformation and Radical-Right Populism Across 26 Countries. Results suggest that political misinformation should be understood as part and parcel of the current wave of radical [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
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