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This paper explores the structural characteristics of information dissemination on WhatsApp, focusing particularly on the concepts of "breadth" and "depth." "Breadth" refers to the maximum number of groups to which a message is simultaneously forwarded, while "depth" indicates the maximum number of times a message is forwarded. Using a dataset from 1,600 groups in India comprising over 760,000 messages spanning text, images, and videos, this study employs hashing techniques to track message propagation in a privacy-preserving manner. Analysis of cascade size, breadth, and depth reveals significant trends: text and video messages tend to generate larger cascade sizes compared to images. Contrary to public platforms, depth emerges as the primary driver behind widespread information dissemination (which could be due to WhatsApp's limitations on message broadcasts). Additionally, distinct disparities among message types show depth as the decisive factor in text and video cascades, while both breadth and depth significantly contribute to image cascades. These findings underscore the importance of considering structural nuances in understanding information spread dynamics on private messaging platforms, providing valuable insights for effective dissemination strategies and management in digital communication landscapes. 

The spread of misinformation online is a global problem that requires global solutions. To that end, we conducted an experiment in 16 countries across 6 continents (N = 34,286; 676,605 observations) to investigate predictors of susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19, and interventions to combat the spread of this misinformation. In every country, participants with a more analytic cognitive style and stronger accuracy-related motivations were better at discerning truth from falsehood; valuing democracy was also associated with greater truth discernment, whereas endorsement of individual responsibility over government support was negatively associated with truth discernment in most countries. Subtly prompting people to think about accuracy had a generally positive effect on the veracity of news that people were willing to share across countries, as did minimal digital literacy tips. Finally, aggregating the ratings of our non-expert participants was able to differentiate true from false headlines with high accuracy in all countries via the ‘wisdom of crowds’. The consistent patterns we observe suggest that the psychological factors underlying the misinformation challenge are similar across different regional settings, and that similar solutions may be broadly effective. 

Metadata on the times at which text and image messages were submitted to a tipline and public groups along with similarity/clustering data grouping messages. Please see the README file and the published paper for further details. Please cite the following publication if you use this data: Kazemi, A., Garimella, K., Shahi, G. K., Gaffney, D., & Hale, S. A. (2022). Research note: Tiplines to uncover misinformation on encrypted platforms: A case study of the 2019 Indian general election on WhatsApp. Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-91 

Abstract The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is the second largest and most widespread extant terrestrial carnivore on Earth and has recently emerged as a medical model for human metabolic diseases. Here, we report a fully phased chromosome-level assembly of a male North American brown bear built by combining Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) HiFi data and publicly available Hi-C data. The final genome size is 2.47 Gigabases (Gb) with a scaffold and contig N50 length of 70.08 and 43.94 Megabases (Mb), respectively. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) analysis revealed that 94.5% of single copy orthologs from Mammalia were present in the genome (the highest of any ursid genome to date). Repetitive elements accounted for 44.48% of the genome and a total of 20,480 protein coding genes were identified. Based on whole genome alignment to the polar bear, the brown bear is highly syntenic with the polar bear, and our phylogenetic analysis of 7,246 single-copy orthologs supports the currently proposed species tree for Ursidae. This highly contiguous genome assembly will support future research on both the evolutionary history of the bear family and the physiological mechanisms behind hibernation, the latter of which has broad medical implications.