Uncovering the impact of IP location display on user behavior in China's social platforms: A policy-driven analysis

Jiaxuan Li, Yifan Luo and Qinjian Yuan

Telecommunications Policy, 2025, vol. 49, issue 6

Abstract: To explore the impact of IP location display policies on user behavior on social media platforms, this study conducted a main experiment and three extended experiments. Based on Panopticon theory and Privacy calculus theory, this study used a Difference-in-Differences approach in the main experiment to analyze the impact of IP location display policies on the user comments volume, emotion expression and privacy disclosure. Additionally, this study employed dynamic topic modeling, text mining techniques and Regression Discontinuity Design in the extended study to explore the geographical heterogeneity of IP location display policies, the impact on user comment dynamics, and location-based incivility. The findings not only deepen the understanding of social media privacy and IP location policy research, but also provide valuable insights for online policymakers, social media platform managers and Internet users about the impact of IP location display.

Keywords: IP location display; Social media platforms; Privacy disclosure; Behavior characterization; Geographical discrimination; Difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2025.102978

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