Beyond orthography: a refined perceptual assimilation task paradigm for measuring cross-linguistic phonetic similarity.

During an infectious disease outbreak, social media may become a channel for false or misleading health information, which can, in turn, impede public health interventions (). Since one of the main functions of free speech is the justification of laws and policies in a democratic society, censorship and restrictions on free speech on social media may, especially when there is no scientific consensus, undermine trust in science and public health authorities (). Therefore, it is crucial for public health authorities to understand social media users’ preferences regarding free speech and speech governance policies in order to design information campaigns that enhance trust and promote reliable health information. We developed and standardized an instrument that measures social media users’ attitudes toward three factors in the context of an infectious disease outbreak: , , and for misinformation spreaders. Initially, we aimed to develop a scale measuring attitudes toward different types of interventions designed to counter online misinformation. Our scoping review identified 15 types of interventions (), which fell into three main categories proposed by Kozyreva et al.: boosting, nudging, and technocognition. However, our central research question was ethical and regulatory rather than psychological. We were concerned with the public health ethics of intervening in the information environment of social media in the context of an infectious disease outbreak. For this reason, we did not classify the 15 intervention types according to their psychological mechanisms—whether they target cognitive and motivational competencies (boosting), shape behavior by altering choice architecture (nudging), or modify technological systems to enhance users’ cognitive capacities (technocognition). Instead, our point of departure lay in public health ethics and in the recognition of a moral tension between individual freedom—specifically free speech on social media—and public health goals, such as preventing the spread of misinformation, protecting from its harmful consequences, and promoting health ().