The Political Weaponization of Online Content: From Direct to Networked Exposure

This paper advances our understanding of online political information exposure by introducing the concept of networked exposure. Existing research has largely focused on direct encounters with misinformation, conspiracy content, or hyperpartisan outlets. Yet audiences are also exposed to seemingly ‘ordinary’ content (e.g. traditional news stories or Wikipedia articles) that is circulated and weaponized within extremist and conspiracy-aligned networks. Previous studies tracing exposure have overlooked measuring encounters with such seemingly innocuous content that is reframed to serve specific narratives. Networked exposure captures this second-order dynamic, highlighting how weaponized material makes its way down to the information diets of a broader audience. We measure networked exposure by combining individual-level browsing and survey data from a Swiss and German sample of users (N = 864), with an aggregate-level dataset of over 21 million URLs shared across Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Telegram, Vkontakte, and Gab. At the content level, weaponized material often followed extremist narratives and were shared by known conspiracy actors. At the individual level, participants often encountered this content through social media redirects and consumed it alongside hyperpartisan, alternative, and conspiracy (HAC) content. At the attitudinal level, networked exposure predicted political attitudes even after accounting for direct exposure to HAC media. These findings show that the influence of extremist and conspiracy networks extends far beyond exposure to known websites. They push us to reconsider what counts as problematic info.