Theocharis, YannisCardenal, Ana SofíaŠtětka, Václav2024-04-082024-04-082023Theocharis Y, Cardenal A, Jin S, Aalberg T, Hopmann DN, Strömbäck J, et al. Does the platform matter? Social media and COVID-19 conspiracy theory beliefs in 17 countries. New Media & Society. 2023 Dec;25(12):3412-37. DOI: 10.1177/146144482110456661461-4448http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59678While the role of social media in the spread of conspiracy theories has received much attention, a key deficit in previous research is the lack of distinction between different types of platforms. This study places the role of social media affordances in facilitating the spread of conspiracy beliefs at the center of its enquiry. We examine the relationship between platform use and conspiracy theory beliefs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relying on the concept of technological affordances, we theorize that variation across key features make some platforms more fertile places for conspiracy beliefs than others. Using data from a crossnational dataset based on a two-wave online survey conducted in 17 countries before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we show that Twitter has a negative effect on conspiracy beliefs—as opposed to all other platforms under examination which are found to have a positive effect.application/pdfengThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614448211045666AffordancesConspiracy theoriesCOVID-19MisperceptionsSocial mediainfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess