Concept

The COVID‑19 social media infodemic results

  • Topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic were similar across all five platforms
  • Number of new posts about the pandemic was calculated, and there was an increase after January 20, when the WHO first reported on COVID-19
  • largest increase of number of posts for Gab was Jan 21, Reddit was Jan 24, Twitter was Jan 30, YouTube was Jan 31, and Instagram was Feb 5
  • the number of posts relying on questionable and reliable sources grow at a linear rate inside each social media platform
  • there is a much smaller proportion of posts from questionable sources than reliable sources
  • there is not a different pattern for posts that come from reliable vs questionable sources
  • average engagement is largest in Twitter for both reliable and unreliable posts
  • Twitter is most neutral in amplifying questionable vs reliable posts

0

1

Updated 2021-01-27

Tags

CSCW (Computer-supported cooperative work)

Computing Sciences