A first look at COVID-19 information and misinformation sharing on Twitter

TL;DR

This paper provides an initial analysis of COVID-19 related conversations on Twitter, examining themes, misinformation, and their relation to the pandemic's progression, highlighting the nature and quality of shared information.

Contribution

It offers a first exploration of COVID-19 discourse on Twitter, analyzing themes, misinformation, and the connection between information flow and case numbers.

Findings

Significant spatio-temporal relationship between information flow and COVID-19 cases.

Misinformation and myth-sharing are present but less dominant than other themes.

Discussion themes evolve over time and vary geographically.

Abstract

Since December 2019, COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly across the world. Not surprisingly, conversation about COVID-19 is also increasing. This article is a first look at the amount of conversation taking place on social media, specifically Twitter, with respect to COVID-19, the themes of discussion, where the discussion is emerging from, myths shared about the virus, and how much of it is connected to other high and low quality information on the Internet through shared URL links. Our preliminary findings suggest that a meaningful spatio-temporal relationship exists between information flow and new cases of COVID-19, and while discussions about myths and links to poor quality information exist, their presence is less dominant than other crisis specific themes. This research is a first step toward understanding social media conversation about COVID-19.