Analysis of content verified by Spanish fact-checkers on Instagram

Abstract

In recent decades, a global fact-checking movement has emerged that aims to combat disinformation. These organizations use social media to make verified content visible. This work aims to know the characteristics of the content published by Spanish verifiers on Instagram, investigate what factors can predict interaction and evaluate the importance they give to their communities. For this, all the publications of the Spanish fact-checkers linked to the IFCN on Instagram during the year 2021 (n=655) have been analyzed. The data has been extracted using Crowdtangle and subsequently a content analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, has been carried out to observe how formats, themes and other variables affect user engagement. The results show that the publications related to politics and legislation have been the most published, although it is the publications on racism and xenophobia that receive the highest engagement. On the other hand, it has been observed that fact-checkers do not use Instagram as a social network to generate conversation, but rather to present their checks in a visual way.