Expert: User trust a key need for Musk’s ‘Twitter 2.0?’

Elon Musk’s success at Twitter will be shaped by his ability to reassure users they are reading credible information, says a Virginia Tech expert in communications.

“The world is watching as Musk learns what social media experts have known for a long time: Social media innovation is fun; Social media governing is hard ” says Virginia Tech expert Megan Duncan, assistant professor in the School of Communication. “Credibility icons, like the blue check, are incredibly important and are part of the norms of any platform — something users expect. Their absence can cause confusion, and changing the meaning of the symbol causes chaos.”

Duncan’s research focuses on social media and credibility indicator icons, like the blue check.

“Regardless of the system of heuristics that Musk adopts, history and communication research has taught us that Twitter will be most likely to succeed if it provides the audience a way of knowing the credibility of information without taking additional actions. Requiring a user to click an information icon or to click through to the bio of an account is a step many people won’t take,” says Duncan.

Background

Duncan has conducted a number of studies on social media platforms and credibility icons, like the blue check. 

Some key takeaways from her research:

1. Audiences learn to interpret credibility indicators in their ‘mental math’ when deciding whether to believe information or not. 
2. Audiences interpret credibility icons the way platforms intended them to – they work!
3. It’s not the sole determinate whether an average audience member believes the information, but it plays a part in nudging the person to be more likely to believe the information when it indicates positive credibility, like the blue checkmark did, or toward not accepting the information when the icon shows the information is not credible.