Concerns about misinformation on Instagram in five countries

Use of Instagram has proliferated over recent years, as have concerns about misinformation. Yet, most misinformation research has focused on Facebook and Twitter. Based on a survey of more than 4000 Instagram users from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany, this study examines general predictors of concerns about misinformation on Instagram and predictors specific to the platform’s information environment. We highlight three potential conceptual accounts of misinformation concerns: fears of being misled due to (incidental) exposure to misinformation, exposure to politically cross-cutting content, and third-person effects. We find that seeing political content on Instagram (from one’s network or other sources) positively and significantly relates to concerns about misinformation, while the political heterogeneity of one’s network does not. Neither political interest nor ideology relate to concerns over misinformation on Instagram, but users’ perceived ability to identify misinformation does. These findings indicate that concerns about misinformation on Instagram are largely related to a third-person effect. We examine if findings replicate across all five countries. Concerns about misinformation are important to understand as they relate to increased vigilance and thus, reduced susceptibility to misinformation, to institutional trust, and to support for government interventions to combat misinformation.