Swipe left on disinformation: a closer look at dating platforms

• Rita Sepúlveda ; Miguel Crespo ^[1]
  1. [1] Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

     Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

     Socorro, Portugal

     
• Localización: Desinformación en la Era de la Inteligencia Artificial / Koldobika Meso Ayerdi (ed. lit.), Simón Peña Fernández (ed. lit.), Ainara Larrondo Ureta (ed. lit.), 2025, ISBN 978-84-9082-984-4, págs. 116-117
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro
• Resumen

  • The growth of disinformation has an implication on social and cultural changes taking new contours on peoples everyday live (Wardle, 2020). Social media platforms and chats are stages were disinformation take place with fake narratives this being spread among friends, family, and acquaintances (Cardoso et al., 2022). However, regarding digital platforms, little attention has been given to disinformation in the context of mobile dating apps. These have become relevant in people’s lives registering significant increase in users in recent years (Sepúlveda, 2023).

    This increase in users is associated with an increase in the number of online profiles, with the most varied intentions that foster more interaction and information sharing. Dating apps become an attractive means for disinformative agents and where users, considering the nature of the platform, exaggerate information about themselves not being entirely honest (Guadagno et al., 2012). These platforms, by their design and affordances shape users’ behaviours (Duguay, 2017) and also can contribute to the creation and dissemination of disinformation.

    This study explores how online daters perceive and experience disinformation on dating platforms, and the impact that it can have on online dating practices. A mixed method approach was employed combining a survey (n=309) with interviews (n=11). Our findings show that users experience disinformation in various ways on dating platforms, and some are classified as more impactable than others. Although disinformation has its own theorical remark, dating platforms users perceive it beyond such remark, pointing to differences in how it is theoretically conceptualized and how it is understood among daily activities. Users also point to the need of platforms to be more efficient in information requiring and mandatorily confirming it while hold platforms responsible for not actively detecting disinformation.

    While dating platforms integrate artificial intelligence in dealing with disinformation, users classify it as insufficient.