An Introduction to Short-Form Social Media & Online Conspiracy Theories
Over 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, one TikTok video, discrediting this historical event, tried to share a different story. This one TikTok, amassing over 11 million views and massive support from users, was only 32 seconds long. The video claimed that the Titanic never actually sank, but rather it was swapped with its sister ship, the Olympic, in an attempt to commit insurance fraud (Hsu et al., 2023, p. 3). Videos like this one are easy to digest due to their short duration and are easily picked up by social media algorithms for people to see.
This style of content is commonplace on short-form platforms such as TikTok. The variety of content styles in circulation on social media makes it hard to moderate the information being spread (Moran et al., 2022). The virality of this video is not at all uncommon for controversial content, and this is what makes conspiracy theories online so dangerous. Information spread on social media has been shown to be impactful in terms of changing the opinions and actions of those who view and interact with the content (Boulianne et al., 2022).
This literature review aims to illustrate the story of the evolution of social media, rise of online conspiracy theories, and the impact of social media platforms on the spread of conspiracy theories. Social media platforms were first introduced in the early 2000s, and the social media landscape has been constantly and rapidly changing since this time. Vine was originally introduced in 2013, and it served as the first short-form social media platform. This short content is easily digestible and that is why consumers find themselves using short-form platforms so frequently. This literature review will host an open discussion in regard to content engagement, the way content and information are shared on short-form social media platforms, as well as the way that conspiracy theories can find a home on these platforms. The ways in which social media is capable of changing the thoughts and actions of consumers will also be covered in the literature. Social media has always served as a platform used for spreading information, for better or for worse. Early platforms served as places where people could market themselves, meet people, and learn, but the style of social media has changed massively over the years. The spread of misinformation, political propaganda, and conspiracy theories have always been an issue on social media, and with the rapidly changing nature of social media platforms, it has become increasingly difficult to combat these issues.
The Rise and Spread of Short-Form Social Media
Social media has made a rapid immersion into mainstream media since the 2000s, and with that has come many implications. Social media has evolved from simple forms such as sharing videos on YouTube or the platform MySpace, which is considered the first mainstream social media platform, founded in 2003 (McAuliffe, 2022). The social media landscape has massively changed since this time, and major changes regarding the type of content that is considered mainstream and supported by consumers have changed as well. Short-form content was first popularized by the platform Vine in the early 2010s and has since made a major return to the mainstream by the platform TikTok. Short-form videos are “typically considered to be videos between three seconds and one minute in length” (Hill, 2023). This style of content has shown massive success and has been adopted by other social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and others.
Introduction to Vine
Short-form style social media was first introduced with the emergence of Vine, a platform launched in 2013. Vine was composed of user-generated content in the form of six-second videos, which gained the platform notoriety. Just eight months after its launch, Vine had amassed over 40 million active users and became the first platform of its stature to gain mainstream attention (Murariu, 2023). Vine became well known for its random, unpredictable stream of content, which largely was composed of random clips, short skits, and brief comedy videos. Vine, though, lacked in other areas, such as monetization. Content creators on Vine eventually left the platform for others who were more marketable and profitable, which eventually led to the downfall of that platform (Murariu, 2023). Vine was eventually phased out, and formally discontinued in 2017 as it was exceeded in popularity by competing social media companies.
The Widespread Implementation of Short-Form Social Media Platforms
Since 2017, there has been a resurgence of short-form social media platforms, and short-form content has become a hugely mainstream means of social media and communication. The human attention span is often considered the reason that these short-form social media platforms gain so much traction. Over the last 20 years, it has been recorded that the average human attention span has decreased by over 4 seconds (Murariu, 2023). TikTok has become the face of this short-form content movement and has even become the world’s most valuable privately owned company (Murariu, 2023). TikTok saw most of its growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a time when many people were working from home or were even laid off from their jobs. With increased downtime due to this as well as storefront closures, there was a spike in social media usage. During this time in 2020, the platform grew the most out of any app, with more than 2 billion downloads (Grandinetti et al., 2023).
Widespread Immersion of Short-Form Style Content
With the rise in popularity of this platform, other mainstream social media giants have attempted to replicate this style of content stream and algorithm. Social media giants such as Meta, formerly Facebook, have implemented this style of content on both of their platforms: Instagram and Facebook. On top of this, platforms like YouTube and Snapchat have even introduced their respective versions of short-form video content. With increasing popularity on various platforms and a massive influx of short-form content being produced, social media platforms are having a difficult time moderating their content and this is creating an opportunity for the spread of misinformation online (Landrum et al., 2021).
The History and Popularization of Conspiracy Theories
As short-form content serves as a powerful agent for spreading information as well as misinformation, conspiracy theories are proving to be a major issue on the platforms. For many years, conspiracy believers were few and far between, and the issue of conspiracy beliefs was not considered a very dangerous or pressing issue. With the increase of social media and the cult-like following of certain belief systems, the issue of conspiracy theories has become much more prominent.
Background of Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories can be defined as alternative explanations of historical or ongoing events claiming that people or groups with sinister intentions are engaged in conspiratorial plotting (Mahl et al., 2023). Conspiracy theories have been around for centuries, and for a long time, they were considered harmless and did not raise too much concern in terms of the safety of the general public (Strömbäck, 2023). For a long time, conspiracy theories were uncommon in terms of belief systems and posed little threat to society. In recent years, they have become increasingly damaging and dangerous, as many conspiracy theories even discredit historical events such as 9/11, the Holocaust, and the Sandy Hook shooting of 2012 (Strömbäck et al., 2023). According to Mahl et al. (2023), “In recent years, triggered by the advent of digital technologies, the visibility of conspiracy theories has increased” (p. 1781). Mahl et al., (2023) go on to explain that the architecture of online environments has enabled conspiracy communities to grow and flourish over time. This refers to the algorithm of online platforms, which pushes and promotes content that gets the most interactions, engagement, and playtime. This is largely applicable to conspiracy theory content, as this style of controversial content gets high engagement and playtime from consumers. Social media has “created algorithms that amplify hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories” (Tareque et al., 2023. p. 350).
Risks and Dangers of Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories are becoming increasingly dangerous because of the way that they gain large followings (Mahl et al., 2023). Conspiracy theories are capable of changing the way that people think and more notably, can change people’s actions. According to Boulianne and Lee (2023), people who get their news from sources like TikTok are twice as likely to participate in protests. The population of short-form content consumers are more susceptible to falling victim to misinformation online and acting on their misinformed belief systems (Boulianne et al., 2022). This same effect was observed in 2020 with conspiratory beliefs surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination. During this time, which aligned with the heightened use of social media and the immersion of TikTok, social media misinformation discouraged many people from getting their COVID-19 vaccinations. This was mostly credited to social media algorithms promoting popular content that got the most ‘clicks’, or aligned best with a user’s search & engagement history.. (Moran et al., 2023). Adversely, Luengo-Oroz et al. (2023), found that the social media ‘rabbit hole’ was not a real issue, and algorithmic feeds on YouTube specifically were unlikely to provide users with unregulated, consistent content with misinformation.
Online Spread of Conspiracy Theories
With the rise of online media technologies, user-generated content, as well as journalism, conspiracy theories have increased. This is due to platforms neglecting the issue of misinformation, and not moderating content closely. (Tareque et al., 2023, p. 354). Conspiracy theories can hugely change the landscape of online environments, where algorithms often promote controversial content such as conspiracy theories that get a lot of clicks. Online technologies and platforms have served as a breeding ground for misinformation and conspiracy theories in recent years.
Difficulty in Online Content Moderation
Content moderation is an issue at the forefront of these platforms, and different platforms have very different approaches when it comes to moderating content and fighting the spread of misinformation. TikTok has shown that content moderation is not the top priority (Hsu, 2023). There is an abundance of dangerous trends, conspiracy theories, and misinformation on the platform, according to Bonifazi et al. (2022). Users on TikTok, as well as other platforms, have been able to evade the platforms’ content moderation techniques in place and continue to spread misinformation. Short-form content is especially easy to circumnavigate in terms of content moderation evasion, and this can be seen across any short-form video platform according to Moran et al. (2022). This is largely due to the massive amount of content in circulation and the lack of available human assets to moderate content (Hsu, 2023). This means that much content is moderated automatically, which is where there is often the most oversight and error (Moran et al., 2022).
The Combative Efforts of Limiting the Spread of Misinformation
There is also a lot of effort that some nations are putting in order to combat the spread of misinformation online at a larger scale. The new European Union law, ‘The Digital Services Act’, will force social media companies to adopt policies to fight the spread of misinformation (Myers 2023). This law in place will punish social media giants that are responsible for the spread of misinformation by fining them. Social media company Meta has even been fined $1.3 Billion for the damages in regards to the spread of misinformation (Myers, 2023).
The Impact that Short-Form Content Has on Users
Short-form content is used strategically by conspiracy theorists and misinformation spreaders as a venue for spreading misinformation. This is for a myriad of reasons, beginning with the addictive nature of short-form video content as well as the way that information and content are spread on short-form video platforms (Moran et al., 2022). Social media platforms can be used to connect like-minded individuals in every sense, and this is something that can be dangerous when it comes to conspiracy idealism.
The Addictive Nature of Short-Form Content
Addiction is something that plagues a lot of people, and social media users are no exception. Next Level Recovery Organization (2023) defines addiction as, “a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences”. This short-form style of video is especially dangerous in terms of addiction because of its tendency to serve as a shortcut to dopamine release. Addiction can be seen and understood in many different forms, but they all have similarities in the symptoms of the addiction. Andrew Huberman (2023) explains in his podcast with Dr. Anna Lembke that even just the thought of a dopamine release will make the addict crave it, and with a substance as easily accessible as social media, this can be a very difficult addiction to avoid. There is demand for quick, easily digestible video content that has reshaped the way that people interact with media. These short videos trigger consumers’ reward systems and help users experience their ‘feel good’ hormones for swiping from video to video.
Popularity and Success of TikTok
Comparatively to Vine and other platforms before it, TikTok has a very rewarding monetization system for its content creators (Murariu, 2023). This is something that has helped TikTok gain its momentum. The rewarding nature of the platform encourages content creators to keep producing content, keeping users engaged on the platform for longer, and further benefitting the platform. This same monetization encourages users to produce content that gains the most traction. It is the same system that rewards controversial topics that are just produced to stir controversy and get views (Murariu, 2023). Users posting controversial content are likely to gain the most traction because of the large amount of engagement these posts receive (Landrum et al., 2021). Automatic content moderation on short video platforms is easily avoidable. Moran et al. (2022) showed this in their study, where they discovered that when images and videos are just slightly manipulated automatic software is unable to pick up the overarching themes and messages of the content, but it is very apparent to human viewers.
Susceptible Groups to Believing Misinformation
Misinformed individuals are very likely to think that others are getting their facts and information wrong when in reality the opposite is true. Three separate studies included in the literature reviewed touch on what types of people are most susceptible to being misinformed online. Landrum et al. (2021) found that users with lower science intelligence were most likely to believe in the misinformation they saw online, specifically the flat earth theory as represented by this study. Strömbäck et al. (2023) concluded that the most notable group in terms of susceptibility to online misinformation and conspiracy theories is those who lay on the far right of the political spectrum. On top of this, the study from Tareque (2023) was representative of the idea that this group of far-right social media users are even targeted by online algorithms and provided with more misleading information regarding conspiracy theories. Additionally, it was concluded that younger audiences are more impressionable and this content is especially dangerous to these groups.
Conclusion
With social media coming to the forefront of the mainstream media, the power of the spread of information is in the hands of the general public for the first time. Over the last two decades, the online ecosystem has been rapidly changing, and ‘normal’ people have gained notoriety and the capability to speak out to the masses, for better or for worse. With the recent popularization of short-form content, the variety and amount of content that consumers see every day has increased, and this comes with its pros, as well as its dangers. Conspiracy theories have become more and more prevalent on social media over the years, and short-form style content has only furthered the implementation of conspiracy theories into the everyday content flow on many social media platforms. Many users adopt conspiracy theories as a style of content production because it will be picked up by the algorithm after increased user engagement, as controversial content typically has high user engagement (Mahl et al., 2023). Short-form social media platforms’ addictive nature is also a dangerous concept, as many users can get ‘trapped’ on these platforms, constantly craving more instant gratification and content (Huberman, 2021).
There is, though, a gap in the literature on this topic. As the social media landscape has rapidly changed in recent years, the scientific literature surrounding this topic has not kept up with the changes on various platforms. The previous research on this topic is missing an analysis of platform-to-platform comparisons in terms of exposure to conspiracy theories. Other short-form video platforms such as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook Video, Snapchat Spotlight, and others. These features are all newly emerging on social media platforms, and there has been little time and opportunity for research to be done on the impact and content present on them. More examination into these different platforms and their short-form features is necessary in order to better understand the true impact of this highly addictive style of content when it comes to the dangerous spread of conspiracy theories. Comparing the content on each of these platforms, as well as the demographics of the users of each platform would be largely beneficial to better understanding the spread of conspiracy theories.