Stitching the Truth: Investigating TikTok’s Stitch Feature as a Native Debunking Practice in the Romanian Digital Sphere

Abstract

This study examines stitch-based debunking as a platform-native practice of misinformation correction on Romanian TikTok. As short-form video platforms become increasingly central to information consumption, users are appropriating native technical features, particularly TikTok’s stitch function, to challenge and reframe misleading content. Drawing on a mixed-methods analysis of stitch-based debunking videos, the study combines qualitative content analysis, engagement metrics, and computational text analysis to examine how corrective practices are performed, circulated, and received. The findings show that stitch-based debunking operates primarily as a peer-to-peer corrective mechanism embedded within platform discourse rather than as an extension of institutional fact-checking. Debunking content frequently targets political, health-related, and gendered misinformation and relies heavily on moral framing and direct address. While informative corrections are most common, content employing humor or sarcasm tends to attract higher levels of engagement, highlighting a tension between informational clarity and platform visibility. Audience responses are generally neutral to supportive, and extended stitch chains are rare, suggesting that algorithmic distribution plays a greater role in amplification than collaborative chaining. Overall, the findings suggest that grassroots debunking may constitute a meaningful component of contemporary information ecosystems and point to the importance of platform affordances in shaping participatory forms of civic media literacy in non-Anglophone contexts.