The voice of few, the opinions of many: evidence of social biases in Twitter COVID-19 fake news sharing. Issue 10 (26th October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Castioni, Piergiorgio; Andrighetto, Giulia; Gallotti, Riccardo; Polizzi, Eugenia; De Domenico, Manlio
• Is Part Of: Royal Society open science. Volume 9:Issue 10(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-10-26
• Subjects: computational social science -- social networks -- data analysis -- fake news -- social psychology; Science -- Periodicals; 500
• DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220716
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2054-5703

Abstract

Abstract : Online platforms play a relevant role in the creation and diffusion of false or misleading news. Concerningly, the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping a communication network which reflects the emergence of collective attention towards a topic that rapidly gained universal interest. Here, we characterize the dynamics of this network on Twitter, analysing how unreliable content distributes among its users. We find that a minority of accounts is responsible for the majority of the misinformation circulating online, and identify two categories of users: a few active ones, playing the role of 'creators', and a majority playing the role of 'consumers'. The relative proportion of these groups (approx. 14% creators—86% consumers) appears stable over time: consumers are mostly exposed to the opinions of a vocal minority of creators (which are the origin of 82% of fake content in our data), that could be mistakenly understood as representative of the majority of users. The corresponding pressure from a perceived majority is identified as a potential driver of the ongoing COVID-19 infodemic.