Analyzing COVID-19 disinformation on Twitter using the hashtags #scamdemic and #plandemic: Retrospective study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an "infodemic" of mis- and disinformation with potentially grave consequences. To explore means of counteracting disinformation, we analyzed tweets containing the hashtags #Scamdemic and #Plandemic.

Methods

Using a Twitter scraping tool called twint, we collected 419,269 English-language tweets that contained "#Scamdemic" or "#Plandemic" posted in 2020. Using the Twitter application-programming interface, we extracted the same tweets (by tweet ID) with additional user metadata. We explored descriptive statistics of tweets including their content and user profiles, analyzed sentiments and emotions, performed topic modeling, and determined tweet availability in both datasets.

Results

After remo

SUBMITTER: Lanier HD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9216575 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature