Most posts that contain misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic comes from ordinary users, with only 20% from public figures such as politicians and celebrities. However, most of the engagement around misinformation on social media is with the posts from public figures with little engagement around posts from ordinary users. 

University of California, Berkeley

- independent individuals have increased with the misinformation about COVID-19 by 900% from January to March
- most misinformation is a reconfiguration of true information where the true information is recontextualized, spun, or twisted rather than completely made up (59% vs 38% in the sample in this study)
- misinformation from prominent figures such as celebrities and politicians account for only 20% of misinformation but a majority (69%) of engagement
- most misinformation comes from ordinary people, but these posts get much less engagement
- largest category of misinformation is about policy and actions of public authorities
- social media platforms have responded to misinformation by attaching warnings or taking posts down
- 59% of false posts on Twitter remain, 27% on YouTube, and 24% on Facebook

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation results

Brennen, J. S., Simon, F., Howard, P. N., & Nielsen, R. K. (2020). Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation. Reuters Institute, 7, 3-1.  http://www.primaonline.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID-19_reuters.pdf

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation

They found 1253 fact-checks made in English from January to March of 2020 in corpus. There was a 900% increase from January to March.

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation results: fact-checks 

Most of the misinformation is a reconfiguration of true information rather than completely made up information. 

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation results: type of misinformation

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation results: public figures

Most of posts that contain misinformation about COVID-19 have to do with the actions of public authority. Categories such as community spread, general medical, and prominent actors come after this. The smallest category is vaccine development. 

Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation results: categories of claims

Many posts that contain misinformation on Twitter have no warning label that they are may be false with 59% of posts. Youtube and Facebook have fewer number of posts that have no warning label but still 27% and 24% of posts respectively.

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