Author: Sreya Nair
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In the ever-evolving era of hyper-connectivity and digital communication, our daily conversations and interactions have increasingly seeped into the encrypted corridors of private messaging platforms altering the way we produce, consume, and share what we know. This quiet migration raises a pressing question: as information travels through the sinuous network of countless devices, platforms and applications, can its integrity - survive the journey? Or does it meander, mutate, and lose its reliability along the way?
This shift has necessitated a deeper inquiry into the integrity of the information we share - this integrity (explored further below) which can be defined as the credibility and consistency of information is either maintained or compromised. Addressing this question has thus become critical in untangling the complex dynamics of misinformation in digitally mediated environments. In that regard, the telos of this exploratory report is to study and investigate how individuals share and consume information on private messaging ecosystems unveiling patterns in user behaviour, verification processes and trust mechanisms that determine how information is perceived and transformed as it migrates from public to private platforms.
Our findings largely reveal that personal relationships, platform-specific dynamics and information presentation leave a considerable impression on how a particular piece of content is received, perceived, trusted and redistributed in private platforms.
Furthermore, this report aims to offer a comprehensive analysis of these processes and also provide recommendations for the enhancement of information integrity within these increasingly critical channels of communication.
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This report is the outcome of sustained guidance, patience, and generous intellectual engagement from several individuals. I am deeply grateful to Sarayu Natarajan for creating the space to approach this research through an unconventional lens, and for the trust that allowed the project to evolve iteratively. Her guidance encouraged deeper questioning and supported analytical risk-taking throughout the research process.
I am sincerely thankful to Aishani Rai for her mentorship throughout the writing process and for her thoughtful and patient engagement on questions of information integrity. Our discussions were marked by clarity, care, and an openness that helped sharpen both the focus and depth of the analysis, especially as the research direction evolved. Her detailed feedback, particularly on visualisation, structure, and presentation played a critical role in strengthening how the findings are communicated.
I would also like to thank Mousmi Panda for her feedback and reflections. Her inputs were timely and helpful in refining aspects of the research focus.
Finally, I would like to thank the wider Aapti Team for their support and engagement with this research, including their participation in the survey. Their willingness to contribute their perspectives added valuable depth to the study and supported its completion.
The communication landscape has undergone a profound transformation in recent years, with private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal emerging as primary channels for information sharing and consumption. Unlike public platforms or traditional news outlets, these closed ecosystems operate with limited oversight, different social dynamics, and increased privacy protections through encryption. This shift represents not merely a change in platform preference but a fundamental reorganisation of information flow that creates new challenges for maintaining content accuracy and integrity.
Private messaging platforms serve multiple purposes simultaneously: they function as interpersonal communication tools, news distribution networks, community forums, and information repositories. This heterogenous nature, combined with their encrypted architecture, creates a distinct information environment with unique characteristics and challenges. The migration of information from official or public channels into these private spaces subjects content to transformation processes that can greatly alter its meaning, context, and perceived credibility.
Our research employs a comprehensive approach to unraveling the processes of transformation by studying and analysing user behaviours, platform mechanics, and social dynamics that influence information integrity. Therefore, we’ve identified some broad research questions that warrant close inspection. These questions include:
● How does information from official or public sources transform (includes simplification, emotional framing or distortion of information) when shared in private messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram etc?
● What methods do individuals employ to verify the reliability and credibility of information they receive in private messaging chats?
● How do personal trust networks and group dynamics influence the reception and perception of information?
● What differences exist in how people engage with information on private messaging platforms versus public social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Twitter/X)?
Through detailed analysis of user survey data and interview responses, we have identified patterns that characterise how information, its interpretation and integrity changes during its journey through private messaging ecosystems and what factors influence these changes.
This report draws on a research approach that is an amalgamation of desk research along with primary research comprising quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews.
We began with a review of existing literature on information integrity, platform governance, and patterns of information sharing and verification within closed digital networks, which informed the development of our research tools. Since the focus was to understand people’s perceptions, we thought a survey would be appropriate to deploy.
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Our survey questions explored:
○ How users receive and process information in private messaging contexts;
○ What verification practices are deployed;
○ How trust is established and maintained;
○ How content transforms during migration across platforms;
○ What behavioural and social factors influence information integrity.
Survey responses were then analysed to discover emerging trends in how individuals engage with different types of content and understand their process of assigning trust to various sources.
These surveys were complemented by 5 in-depth interviews with non-expert users—individuals who rely on private messaging platforms in their daily lives to capture detailed accounts of their information consumption and sharing behaviours which provided detailed accounts of their information consumption and sharing behaviours.
Through this explication, we were able to identify which platforms and formats mustered the most amount of engagement and additionally, how trust and personal networks influenced the manner in which information is shared and retained across channels. This approach allowed us to get a grasp of the complex mechanisms that command information flow in private messaging ecosystems.
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This section synthesises key conceptual structures to understand how information integrity and digital trust interact within digital ecosystems. It begins by defining the core facets of information integrity followed by delineating the socio-technical foundations of digital trust, and subsequently examining the contemporary challenges that threaten both.