The battleground of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Facebook: Fact checkers vs. misinformation spreaders

Abstract

Our study examines Facebook posts containing nine prominent COVID-19 vaccine misinformation topics that circulated on the platform between March 1st, 2020 and March 1st, 2021. We first identify misinformation spreaders and fact checkers, further dividing the latter group into those who repeat misinformation to debunk the false claim and those who share correct information without repeating the misinformation. Our analysis shows that, on Facebook, there are almost as many fact checkers as misinformation spreaders. In particular, fact checkers’ posts that repeat the original misinformation received significantly more comments than posts from misinformation spreaders. However, we found that misinformation spreaders were far more likely to take on central positions in the misinformation URL co-sharing network than fact checkers. This demonstrates the remarkable ability of misinformation spreaders to coordinate communication strategies across topics.

Research note: Lies and presidential debates: How political misinformation spread across media streams during the 2020 election

“…7 Indeed, media engagement-regardless of stance toward candidates or issues-compounds the influence of political elites and allows them to set the terms of the debate, enhancing the power of presidential candidates (for instance) to distort the truth, undermine alternative views (Maurer and Reinemann 2006), and dispense narratives made memorable merely by their shock value, given that new information "sticks" (Morley & Walker, 1987). Although best practices for combating misinformation in the media remain poorly understood (Vosoughi et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2021), we show that discussion of misinformation clearly ebbs and flows in response to elites' false claims. By connecting misleading political frames to both media coverage and public cognitions, our study shows how the ability of political elites to shape media narratives threatens both the media's function as "gatekeepers" of verifiable information (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009;Soroka, 2012) and the core democratic value of a rational and informed citizenry (Bartels, 1996;Lipset, 1960).…”

COVID-19 Vaccine Fact-Checking Posts on Facebook: Observational Study

“…To fill these gaps in the literature, we collected a data set of 12,553 COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts and their associated comments (N=122,362) from January 2020 to March 2022. Facebook was selected because it is 1 of the most popular social media platforms worldwide with a significant presence of both misinformation and fact-checking information [ 35 ].…”

Digital public health leadership in the global fight for health security

“…A multifaceted approach is necessary to combat misinformation. Using the four pillars of infodemic management recently proposed by the WHO as a basis, 27 such an approach would involve: (1) the development of at different levels (organisational, national, regional) through investment in appropriate toolkits to perform such tasks (eg, extracting structured information from unstructured texts) 28 ; (2) the development of a fact-checking culture with the appropriate reach and speed to counter misinformation 29 supported by a network of related activities, such as news organisations striving to improve on their transparency and ‘findability’ 30 ; (3) greater streamlining of standards and legal frameworks, so that the above actions and activities are firmly based on grounds of legitimacy and transparency (eg, the Code of Principles from the International Fact-Checking Network https://www.ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org ) and the 2017 Joint UN, OSCE and OAS Declaration on ‘Fake News’, Disinformation and Propaganda ( https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/6/8/302796.pdf ), which help to provide a common legal understanding and (4) national efforts to improve digital literacy, as part of national development programmes, to improve citizens’ resilience to misinformation. 31 …”