Charming e-cigarette users with distorted science: a survey examining social media platform use, nicotine-related misinformation and attitudes towards the tobacco industry

Silver, Nathan; Kierstead, Elexis C.; Briggs, Jodie; Schillo, Barbara

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057027

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 76 publications

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“…Although the spread of problematic information is not unique to Twitter, recent survey data suggest that Twitter users in particular are more likely to recall hearing and believe that nicotine, tobacco, or vaping can prevent COVID-19 [17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Provaping “Gatewatchers” on the Dissemination of COVID-19 Misinformation on Twitter: Analysis of Twitter Discourse Regarding Nicotine and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Silver¹,

Kierstead²,

Kostygina³

et al. 2022

J Med Internet Res

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Background There is a lot of misinformation about a potential protective role of nicotine against COVID-19 spread on Twitter despite significant evidence to the contrary. We need to examine the role of vape advocates in the dissemination of such information through the lens of the gatewatching framework, which posits that top users can amplify and exert a disproportionate influence over the dissemination of certain content through curating, sharing, or, in the case of Twitter, retweeting it, serving more as a vector for misinformation rather than the source. Objective This research examines the Twitter discourse at the intersection of COVID-19 and tobacco (1) to identify the extent to which the most outspoken contributors to this conversation self-identify as vaping advocates and (2) to understand how and to what extent these vape advocates serve as gatewatchers through disseminating content about a therapeutic role of tobacco, nicotine, or vaping against COVID-19. Methods Tweets about tobacco, nicotine, or vaping and COVID-19 (N=1,420,271) posted during the first 9 months of the pandemic (January-September 2020) were identified from within a larger corpus of tobacco-related tweets using validated keyword filters. The top posters (ie, tweeters and retweeters) were identified and characterized, along with the most shared Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), most used hashtags, and the 1000 most retweeted posts. Finally, we examined the role of both top users and vape advocates in retweeting the most retweeted posts about the therapeutic role of nicotine, tobacco, or vaping against COVID-19. Results Vape advocates comprised between 49.7% (n=81) of top 163 and 88% (n=22) of top 25 users discussing COVID-19 and tobacco on Twitter. Content about the ability of tobacco, nicotine, or vaping to treat or prevent COVID-19 was disseminated broadly, accounting for 22.5% (n=57) of the most shared URLs and 10% (n=107) of the most retweeted tweets. Finally, among top users, retweets comprised an average of 78.6% of the posts from vape advocates compared to 53.1% from others (z=3.34, P<.001). Vape advocates were also more likely to retweet the top tweeted posts about a therapeutic role of nicotine, with 63% (n=51) of vape advocates retweeting at least 1 post compared to 40.3% (n=29) of other top users (z=2.80, P=.01). Conclusions Provaping users dominated discussions of tobacco use during the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter and were instrumental in disseminating the most retweeted posts about a potential therapeutic role of tobacco use against the virus. Subsequent research is needed to better understand the extent of this influence and how to mitigate the influence of vape advocates over the broader narrative of tobacco regulation on Twitter.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Provaping “Gatewatchers” on the Dissemination of COVID-19 Misinformation on Twitter: Analysis of Twitter Discourse Regarding Nicotine and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Silver¹,

Kierstead²,

Kostygina³

et al. 2022

J Med Internet Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Social Cognitive Theory and Willingness to Perform Recommended Health Behavior: The Moderating Role of Misperceptions

Borah,

Lorenzano,

Yel

et al. 2023

Journal of Health Communication

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Title: Characterizing the most influential voices driving Twitter discourse about tobacco regulatory policy from September 2019 – July 2021 (Preprint)

Silver¹,

Miao²,

Kierstad³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Twitter is an important avenue through which tobacco regulation evolves in the public consciousness. That said, prior research has identified the spread of mis and dis-information regarding tobacco products on Twitter and a possibly disproportionate influence of e-cigarette advocates on the platform taking an anti-regulatory stance. OBJECTIVE To examine the most influential users discussing tobacco regulation on Twitter. METHODS We used a keyword filter (F1 = .91) to identify N=3,159,807 tobacco-policy tweets by n=58,369 users from the full corpus of tobacco-related content between the vaping-associated lung injury outbreak starting in August 2019, continuing through the period before (period 1), during (period 2), and after pandemic stay-at-home orders (period 3), and through the months following vaccination rollout, up to July 2021. Top users by retweets and sustained influence (H index) were identified and coded. RESULTS Total posts and retweets received were heavily concentrated among the top 100 users at each of three time periods. The top 100 most retweeted users posted 8.5%, 21.4% and 34.6% of all original tweets during periods 1, 2 and 3, respectively and 56%, 48%, and 70% of all retweets. The 100 users with the top H index posted 8.3% of all content, 17.5%, and 27.3% with those posts accounting for 23.1%, 37.5%, and 16.9% of all retweets received during each period respectively. After coding user profiles, e-cigarette advocates comprised 44.5% (n=146) of top H index unique users across all three time periods. CONCLUSIONS While both the number of posts and number of users discussing tobacco policy on Twitter declined sharply with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-cigarette advocates continued to dominate both top 100 retweet and top 100 H index groups revealing the strong influence of anti-tobacco regulation advocates on Twitter.

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Charming e-cigarette users with distorted science: a survey examining social media platform use, nicotine-related misinformation and attitudes towards the tobacco industry

Cited by 3 publications

References 76 publications

The Influence of Provaping “Gatewatchers” on the Dissemination of COVID-19 Misinformation on Twitter: Analysis of Twitter Discourse Regarding Nicotine and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Influence of Provaping “Gatewatchers” on the Dissemination of COVID-19 Misinformation on Twitter: Analysis of Twitter Discourse Regarding Nicotine and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social Cognitive Theory and Willingness to Perform Recommended Health Behavior: The Moderating Role of Misperceptions

Title: Characterizing the most influential voices driving Twitter discourse about tobacco regulatory policy from September 2019 – July 2021 (Preprint)

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