Scrolling Through Lies

This study examines the evolving body of research on political disinformation, social media, and youth civic engagement through a bibliometric analysis of 454 publications retrieved from the OpenAlex database covering the period 2013–2025. The objective is to map the growth, intellectual structure, and research gaps within this rapidly expanding field. Using the bibliometrix package in RStudio, the study conducts performance, intellectual, and conceptual structure analyses to identify publication trends, thematic clusters, collaboration networks, and geographic distribution of scholarship. The results reveal a significant annual growth rate of 43.14%, particularly accelerating after 2020, reflecting increased scholarly attention during the COVID-19 infodemic and global election cycles. However, the findings also highlight structural inequalities, where Southeast Asian (SEA) countries demonstrate high research output but remain underrepresented in global citation networks, indicating a gap between knowledge production and academic influence. The study further identifies fragmentation in collaboration networks, limited focus on emerging platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and a lack of longitudinal research on the long-term civic effects of disinformation exposure. These findings suggest that while the field is expanding, it remains uneven in both geographic representation and conceptual integration. The study concludes that addressing political disinformation requires a more inclusive, interdisciplinary, and globally connected research agenda that strengthens regional scholarship, promotes cross-national collaboration, and enhances media literacy to support informed civic participation among youth.