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Record W3171753655 · doi:10.4018/ijsmoc.2021010102

COVID-19 Misinformation and Polarization on Twitter

2021· article· en· W3171753655 on OpenAlexaff
Rebecca Godard, Susan Holtzman

Bibliographic record

VenueInternational Journal of Social Media and Online Communities · 2021
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldSocial Sciences
TopicMisinformation and Its Impacts
Canadian institutionsUniversity of British Columbia
Fundersnot available
KeywordsMisinformationCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Social mediaPandemicInternet privacySentiment analysisHoaxPsychologySevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Psychological intervention2019-20 coronavirus outbreakPolarization (electrochemistry)AdvertisingMedicinePolitical scienceComputer scienceWorld Wide WebBusinessArtificial intelligenceVirologyAlternative medicineOutbreak

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

This study investigated polarization on Twitter related to the COVID-19 pandemic by examining tweets containing #Plandemic (suggests the pandemic is a hoax) or #StayHome (encourages compliance with health recommendations). Over 35,000 tweets from over 25,000 users were collected in April 2020 and examined using sentiment and social network analyses. Compared to #StayHome tweets, #Plandemic tweets came from a more tightly connected network, were higher in negative emotional content, and could be sub-divided into specific categories of misinformation and conspiracy theories. To evaluate the stability of users' COVID-related perspectives, the prevalence of pro- and anti-mask sentiment was measured in same users' tweets approximately four months later. Results revealed substantial stability over time, with 40% of #Plandemic users tweeting anti-mask hashtags compared to just 2% of #StayHome users. Findings demonstrate COVID-related polarization on Twitter and have implications for public health interventions to quell the propagation of misinformation.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.001
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.009
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: Observational
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.003
Threshold uncertainty score0.008

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0010.009
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0010.002
Science and technology studies0.0010.001
Scholarly communication0.0020.003
Open science0.0000.002
Research integrity0.0000.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0020.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.082
GPT teacher head0.384
Teacher spread0.303 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2021
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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Same venueInternational Journal of Social Media and Online CommunitiesSame topicMisinformation and Its ImpactsFrench-language works237,207