Prevalence and source analysis of COVID-19 misinformation of 138 countries

Abstract

This study analyzed 9,657 pieces of misinformation that originated in 138 countries and fact-checked by 94 organizations. Collected from Poynter Institute's official website and following a quantitative content analysis method along with descriptive statistical analysis, this research produces some novel insights regarding COVID-19 misinformation. The findings show that India (15.94%), the US (9.74%), Brazil (8.57%), and Spain (8.03%) are the four most misinformation-affected countries. Based on the results, it is presumed that the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation can have a positive association with the COVID-19 situation. Social media (84.94%) produces the highest amount of misinformation, and the internet (90.5%) as a whole is responsible for most of the COVID-19 misinformation. Moreover, Facebook alone produces 66.87% misinformation among all social media platforms. Of all countries, India (18.07%) produced the highest amount of social media misinformation, perhaps thanks to the country's higher internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption, and users' lack of internet literacy. On the other hand, countries like Turkey, the US, Brazil, and the Philippines where either political control over media is intense or political conservatism is apparent, experienced a higher amount of misinformation from mainstream media, political figures, and celebrities. Although the prevalence of misinformation was the highest in March 2020, given the present trends, it may likely to increase slightly in 2021.

Canadian public perceptions and experiences with information during the COVID-19 pandemic: strategies to optimize future risk communications

“…Messages should address uncertainty to reduce the possibility of the public creating their own conclusions and thereby decreasing the potential for misinformation [55]. Additionally, public health messengers should take accountability for seemingly contradictory or conflicting information in order to maintain trust; this is particularly important among historically disadvantaged groups who may be less trusting of governments, media, health and academic institutions [7,54]. Finally, the importance of ensuring information is accessible through various platforms, formats and languages was apparent in our data.…”

“…In contrast, disinformation is the process of deliberately spreading false information. Both misinformation and disinformation have been prevalent across communication channels including social media [5][6][7][8], news media [7][8][9][10] and government officials [10,11] during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Depressive and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-year follow-up

“…Finally, an increase in self-rated COVID-19 knowledge was associated with decreased depressive and anxiety symptoms, but only in the first lockdown period. A plausible explanation is that knowledge about the virus and its transmission was particularly salient at the start when there was a general lack of understanding accompanied by excessive circulation of misinformation [29].…”