Fake News throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Cotter, K., DeCook, J. R., & Kanthawala, S. (2022). Fact-checking the crisis: COVID-19, infodemics, and the platformization of truth. Social Media + Society, 8(January). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211069048

In the above article, the authors aim to determine how various social media platforms responded to the sharing of misinformation during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on three platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) and addresses the use of various fact-checking methods throughout the pandemic. The policies from these platforms support the principle that facts should arise from the in-depth discussions and ideas shared amongst a diverse group of contributors (Cotter et al., 2022). This method allows users to establish fact from fiction by gathering a variety of information from other people within the discussion. However, as the pandemic progressed, other methods were introduced to control the rapid spread of misinformation.

Cotter et al. (2022) found that initially, these platforms controlled covid-related mis/disinformation by reducing visibility. However, all three platforms implemented new methods which used both human (fact-checking organisations) and automated processes to mediate the content being shared. The content was either removed, demoted, or labeled to reduce the amount of mis/disinformation being circulated (Cotter et al., 2022). By applying this labeling approach, users were still able to access the information (which supports the platform’s policies) to enable communities to draw their conclusions through the sharing of all information. By demoting or removing misinformation, the platforms were also able to amplify authoritative posts, thus making them more visible to users. For example, the release of the video entitled “Plandemic” was released via Twitter containing extensive misinformation. While this video has now been removed, a message now appears directing users to the Australian Government website for accurate information.

Although it is impossible to remove all misinformation from social media, the various platforms found the amplification of accurate information a positive compromise in finding a balance of accurate and inaccurate information (Cotter et al., 2022). Although I agree that this is a positive approach in the fight against misinformation, I think there should also be a focus on ensuring people have the skills to recognise fact from fiction. The spread of disinformation can lead people to a state of panic and confusion which can trigger anxiety and social media fatigue (Najmul Islam et al., 2020). Throughout the pandemic, it was found that people who had exceptionally low scientific knowledge and relied heavily on their intuition tended to create and share incorrect information (Pennycook et al., 2020). Education is key to ensuring people have the tools to enable them to recognise misinformation and know where to locate accurate material (Niemiec, 2020).

The authors of this article present a well-researched, transparent article and explicitly state that no financial support was received for the research project. The authors reported from a non-biased viewpoint while showing some concern about the strong dependence on users independently determining fact from fiction. I agree that while people should have the freedom to express their own opinions and beliefs, it would seem irresponsible to allow the circulation of potentially harmful information without some moderation. Without moderation, vulnerable users would trust and further spread misinformation. Managing misinformation is challenging for social media policymakers but frequent creators of false information should be monitored (Aswani et al., 2020). Considering the endless amount of information being created on the various social media platforms, I think they do have some good systems in place to weed out malicious misinformation which was discussed well in this article.

 

References

Aswani, R., Kumar Kar, A., & Vigneswara Ilvarasan, P. (2020). Experience: managing misinformation in social media-insights for policymakers from Twitter analytics. Journal of Data and Information Quality, 12(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3341107

Cotter, K., DeCook, J. R., & Kanthawala, S. (2022). Fact-checking the crisis: COVID-19, infodemics, and the platformization of truth. Social Media + Society, 8(January). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211069048

Franganillo, J. (2021). Fake news [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/34zq7tzqRSw

Najmul Islam, A. K. M., Laato, S., Talukder, S., & Sutinen, E. (2020). Misinformation sharing and social media fatigue during COVID-19: an affordance and cognitive load perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 159(October). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120201

Niemiec, E. (2020). COVID-19 and misinformation: is censorship of social media a remedy to the spread of medical misinformation?. EMBO Reports, 21(11), e51420. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202051420

Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770-780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054