Abstract

From Pandemic to Plandemic: Examining the Virality of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media

Edmund Lee, PhD¹, Huanyu Bao², Yixi Wang³, Yi Torng Lim⁴ (1)Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, (2)Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University , (3)School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China, (4)School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University

APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

Background:
Social media has been blamed for the proliferation of COVID-19 misinformation. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, one of the most prominent forms of misinformation circulating on social media was the pseudo-documentary plandemic. This 30-min viral video featured discredited research scientist Dr Judy Mikovits, who put forth a series of COVID-19 falsehoods such as wearing masks would activate COVID-19 virus, or that flu vaccines would increase the chances of getting the virus.

Objective/Purpose:
The overall aim of this study is to examine why some forms of misinformation would go viral while others would not. Specifically, this study aims to examine how factors such as (a) themes of COVID-19 posts, (b) presence/absence of misinformation, (c) type of misinformation (satire or parody, manipulated content, fabricated content, or imposter content), (d) source of misinformation, (e) emotions, and (f) fact-checking by Facebook are associated with COVID-19 misinformation amplification (measured by total number of interaction on Facebook’s posts).

Method:
Using CrowdTangle, a Facebook API, we collected a total of 5,732 publicly available Facebook pages’ posts containing plandemic-related keywords (‘dr judy mikovits’ OR ‘plandemic’ AND ‘Covid-19 OR covid19 OR coronoavirus OR coronavirus’) from January 1st to December 19, 2020.

A random sample of 600 posts was subsequently coded by 2 independent coders, and the data were analyzed using negative binomial regression to examine how (a) themes, (b) presence/absence of misinformation, (c) type of misinformation, (d) source of misinformation, (e) emotions, and (f) fact-checking were associated with misinformation amplification or attenuation.

Results:
Overall, results showed that misinformation with themes relating to treatment and prevention, diagnosis, and health impact, as well as social impact were most likely to be amplified. We also found that among a large percentage of plandemic misinformation (42.9%) contained manipulated content (posts that contain some elements of truth mixed with falsehoods). Most notably, misinformation posts flagged by Facebook’s fact-checking system tend to be less amplified compared to those not flagged.

Discussion/Conclusions:
The results of our study showed that not all types of misinformation posts would go viral on social media. Also, the study indicated that applying fact-checking labels are efficacious to a certain extent in in attenuating the amplification of COVID-19 misinformation. In counteracting false narratives on social media, big tech companies have a responsibility to understand the traits of COVID-19 misinformation that make them go viral, and to develop effective fact-check labels to stop them from proliferating.