A Study of Misinformation in Audio Messages Shared in WhatsApp Groups

Recent studies have shown that group communication on WhatsApp plays a significant role to foster information dissemination at large, with evidence of its use for misinformation campaigns. We analyze more than 40K audio messages shared in over 364 publicly accessible groups in Brazil, covering six months of great social mobilization in the country. We identify the presence of misinformation in these audios by relying on previously checked facts. Our study focuses on content and propagation properties of audio misinformation, contrasting them with unchecked content as well as with prior findings of misinformation in other media types. We also rely on a set of volunteers to perform a qualitative analysis of the audios. We observed that audios with misinformation had a higher presence of negative emotions and also often used phrases in the future tense and talked directly to the listener. Moreover, audios with misinformation tend to spread quicker than unchecked content and last significantly longer in the network. The speaker's tone from the audios with misinformation was also considered less friendly and natural than the unchecked ones. Our study contributes to the literature by focusing on a media type that is gaining mainstream popularity recently, and, as we show here, is being used as vessel for misinformation spread.