Social media fragmentation raises disinformation risks

Significance One driving factor of this risk is that in 2024 over 4 billion people -- around half the world's population -- will be able to vote in elections. These polls will take place at a time when the social role of online platforms is growing and access to reliable information is shrinking. Impacts Fact-checking organisations will find themselves spread more thinly and will likely prioritise which platforms they monitor. Efforts by established platforms to co-opt features of smaller platforms will draw some but not all users back. Misleading, synthetic audio-visual content will be the hardest category of content for moderation teams.