Mapping Cross-Platform Diffusion of Misinformation and Corrections in the Chinese Media Ecosystem

Online misinformation often spills beyond its platform of origin, diffusing and amplifying across the broader media ecosystem. Yet empirical evidence of such cross-platform dynamics remains limited. By tracing the spillover of 876,339 health-related content items across 68 Chinese platforms, we mapped and compared the network structures of misinformation and correction flows. Results show that misinformation diffusion across platforms is decentralized and locally clustered, with social media serving as key bridges, whereas correction diffusion is more centralized and hierarchically structured, with news media occupying dominant positions. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) further indicate that misinformation primarily flows from news aggregators to social media and circulates within social media platforms, while correction move unidirectionally transmitting from news media to aggregators and social media. These findings highlight distinct structural patterns underlying misinformation and correction flows and provide implications for strengthening cross-platform governance of online misinformation.