Abstract

Despite concern about exposure to content from untrustworthy sources on social media, little is known about the frequency or effects of exposure to their content. We examine 2020 data from all active U.S. adults on Facebook and Instagram to measure exposure to content from Pages, groups, and web domains on Facebook and public accounts on Instagram that repeatedly publish misinformation.

We find that average users saw relatively little content in their feeds from these untrustworthy sources; exposure was highly concentrated. A multimonth field experiment during the 2020 election among consenting users reduced feed-based exposure to content from untrustworthy sources by approximately 70% on both platforms but had no measurable effects on numerous preregistered outcomes, even among participants with high pretreatment exposure.

Our results demonstrate that a feasible platform intervention can successfully reduce exposure to content from untrustworthy sources but suggest that these changes are unlikely to have immediate effects on attitudes and beliefs.