Does negative buzz result in social media discontinuation? Investigating the effects of negative word of mouth in the United States, India, and Finland

Negative Word-of-mouth (WOM) significantly influences how users form attitudes toward digital platforms, yet little is known about its role in social media discontinuation. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study investigates how two types of negative WOM, online and offline, influence users’ perceptions of privacy and social media discontinuation intent among WhatsApp users in the United States (n = 309), India (n = 271), and Finland (n = 205). The research model conceptualizes negative WOM as environmental factors, privacy invasion, and distrust as self-judgment, and discontinuation intention as the behavioral response. The structural equation modeling shows that users do not respond to both types of WOM in the same way in different countries. Online negative WOM significantly increases perception of privacy invasion in the US and India, while offline negative WOM is more influential in shaping distrust in Finland. Distrust consistently predicts discontinuation intention across three countries, with privacy invasion directly affecting discontinuation intention only in Finland. This study contributes to existing literature by examining the impact of environmental factors represented in both offline and online negative WOM, as well as cognitive factors represented in privacy invasion and distrust on discontinuous intention. Further, unlike the mainstream literature that focuses on a single country, we study social media discontinuation across three countries. The research advances SCT-based research by applying it to the underexplored domain of social media discontinuation and provides implications for designing country-specific privacy strategies to mitigate discontinuation risks.