Using network analysis, this study investigates how information veracity and account verification influence the dissemination of information in the context of discourse about genetically modified organisms on social media. We discovered that misinformation and true information about genetically modified organisms demonstrated different dissemination patterns on social media. In general, the dissemination networks of misinformation about genetically modified organisms were found to have higher structural stability than those of true information about genetically modified organisms, as shown by the denser network structure with fewer distinct subgroups residing within the dissemination networks. More importantly, unverified account status significantly boosted the dissemination of misinformation by increasing network density. In addition, we found that the posts about genetically modified organisms from unverified accounts received more reposts and had more layers of information relay than those from the verified accounts. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings on combating misinformation are discussed in the article.

本研究使用网络分析，调查信息真实性和帐户验证如何影响社交媒体上关于转基因生物的话语背景下的信息传播。我们发现，关于转基因生物的错误信息和真实信息在社交媒体上表现出不同的传播模式。总的来说，发现关于转基因生物的错误信息的传播网络比关于转基因生物的真实信息的传播网络具有更高的结构稳定性，这可以从更密集的网络结构和更少的不同亚群驻留在传播网络中显示出来。更重要的是，未经验证的帐户状态通过增加网络密度显着促进了错误信息的传播。此外，我们发现，来自未经验证的账户的转基因生物帖子比来自经过验证的账户的帖子获得了更多的转发和更多的信息传递层级。本文讨论了这些发现对打击错误信息的理论和实践意义。