Optimizing the Service Efficacy of Crowd Ratings in Curbing Fake News Dissemination on Social Media

Curbing the dissemination of fake news in social media has been a major issue in recent years. Previous studies have suggested that the general public can recognize fake news, showing the feasibility of applying crowd ratings to identify fake news. However, the effectiveness of crowd ratings for curbing the dissemination of fake news is uncertain. This study constructed an online experimental platform to simulate Sina Microblog and designed a crowd rating strategy to compare and validate the difference between the absence vs. the presence of crowd ratings, and crowd ratings vs. expert ratings, in curbing the dissemination of fake news. We found that the presence of crowd ratings inhibited users' dissemination of fake news compared to the absence of crowd ratings. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the suppression effects of crowd ratings and expert ratings, both of which were effective in curbing the dissemination of fake news. Crowd rating uses collective intelligence to intervene in users' perceptions and behaviors at the onset of fake news dissemination, providing a cost-effective and efficient solution to combat the spread of fake news on social media.