A Ranked Solution for Social Media Fact Checking Using Epidemic Spread Modeling

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Smith ◽  
Nathaniel D. Bastian
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Epidemic Spread ◽  
Fact Checking

How Journalists and Social Media Users Perceive Online Fact-Checking and Verification Services

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1109-1129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petter Bae Brandtzaeg ◽  
Asbjørn Følstad ◽  
María Ángeles Chaparro Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fact Checking

scholarly journals The Accidental Checkmate: Understanding the Intent behind sharing Misinformation on Social Media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajay Agarwal
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Neural System ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
World Community ◽  
Independent Analysis ◽  
False Sense ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Common ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Independent Parameters

The bloom of COVID19 has resulted in the explosion of ripple pollens which have severely affected the world community in the terms of their multi-axial impact. These pollens, despite being indistinguishable, have a varied set of characteristics in terms of their origin and contribution towards the overall declining homeostasis of human beings. The most prominent of these pollens are misinformation. Various studies have been conducted, performed, and stochastically replicated to build ML-based models to accurately detect misinformation and its variates on the common modalities of spread. However, the recent independent analysis conducted on the prior studies reveals how the current fact-checking systems fail and fall flat in fulfilling any practical demands that the misinfodemic of COVID19 brought for us. While the scientific community broadly accepts the pandemic-like resemblance of the rampant misinformation spread, we must also make sure that our response to the same is multi-faceted, interdisciplinary, and doesn't stand restricted. As crucial it is to chart the features of misinformation spread, it is also important to understand why it spreads in the first place? Our paper deals with the latter question through a game-theory-based approach. We implement a game with two social media users or players who aim at increasing their outreach on their social media handles whilst spreading misinformation knowingly. We take five independent parameters from 100 Twitter handles that have shared misinformation during the period of COVID19. Twitter was chosen as it is a prominent social media platform accredited to the major modality for misinformation spread. The outreach increment on the user’s Twitter handles was measured using various features provided by Twitter- number of comments, number of retweets, and number of likes. Later, using a computational neuroscientific approach, we map each of these features with the type of neural system they trigger in a person’s brain. This helps in understanding how misinformation whilst being used as an intentional decoy to increase outreach on social media, also, affects the human social cognition system eliciting pseudo-responses that weren’t intended otherwise leading to realizing possible neuroscientific correlation as to how spreading misinformation on social media intentionally/unintentionally becomes a strategic maneuver to increased reach and possibly a false sense of accomplishment.

scholarly journals Electoral Disinformation: Looking Through the Lens of Tsek.ph Fact Checks

Plaridel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-295
Author(s):  
Yvonne Chua ◽  
Jake Soriano
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Midterm Elections ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fact Checking

Elections are fertile ground for disinformation. The 2019 midterm elections, like the 2016 presidential election, buttress this observation. This ugly side of electoral contests is documented by Tsek.ph, a pioneering collaborative fact-checking initiative launched by three universities and eleven newsrooms specifically for the midterms. Its repository of fact checks provides valuable insights into the nature of electoral disinformation before, during and after the elections. Clearly, electoral disinformation emanates from candidates and supporters alike, on conventional (e.g., speeches and sorties) and digital (e.g., social media) platforms. Its wide range of victims includes the media no less.

COVID-19 Infodemic

Glimpse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Sarah Lwahas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Services ◽  
The Media ◽  
Setting Theory ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Managerial Positions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Journalism like many other professions is facing a crucial phase with the emergence of Coronavirus pandemic. The impact of Coronavirus phenomenon is enormous on social and cultural relationships of many communities who depend on the media for information to connect with each other and participate in governance freely. Journalists globally are facing enormous crisis of managing the infodemic of the pandemic streaming particularly from social media; as well as controversies of the media perpetuating disinfodemic or disinformation and distrust in the society. Besides arrests and restrictions of movement, journalists are also under intense threats of losing their jobs, and exacerbated psychological and physical pressures owing to the devastating effects of COVID-19. Using the Social Responsibility theory, that emphasises improved standards of journalism, safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalists among others, and the Agenda setting theory, that controls access to news, information, and entertainment; this research interrogates how journalists from selected states in Northern Nigeria are responding to the challenges of reportage of COVID-19. This research sampled the views of journalists using structured questionnaire administered online and interviewed seven senior journalists holding managerial positions. Findings revealed that journalists are embracing fact checking of the avalanche of information even within familiar sources to verify reports on COVID-19. Similarly, they are deploying digital and multimedia strategies to provide a continuum of media services and sensitive reporting to engage this new infodemic of COVID-19, now globally considered the “new normal”. This research recommends that, since COVID-19 is a novel disease, professionals across countries need to talk with each other, and journalists particularly from Africa and indeed Nigeria; need to put some structure and some science in place, especially in the performance of their jobs, so that professionalism can be sustained without compromising the future of the journalism.

scholarly journals Youth-led efforts against infodemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Uakkas ◽  
O El Omrani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Internet Radio ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Source Type ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking

Abstract Problem The IFMSA, voicing the opinion of 1.3 million medical students from 129 countries, acknowledges the importance of health literacy in driving social change. Today, there is a global epidemic of misinformation, spreading rapidly through social media platforms and other outlets, posing a critical threat for public health due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, it threatens the possibility of slowing down the progression of the virus. The fight against such misinformation requires continuous provision of the most reliable and recent information. Description A global study was conducted by IFMSA, in collaboration with the WHO, composed of a survey to get data about all the organizations, institutions, NGOs, and other entities that focus on fact-checking and correcting misinformation about COVID-19. The survey was filled by medical students from end of April to end of May who reported name, type, scope of work, languages, primary funding source, type and source of information shared by the organization. Results We discovered 182 initiatives from 62 countries worldwide that verified information in 48 languages. Social media, internet, radio, SMS, printed media and hearsay were identified as the main sources of misinformation. Video podcasts with experts, regular social media updates and newsletters, were described as best practices, in addition to debunking myths on a regular basis and verifying statements by public figures. Also quality of fact-checking differed between initiatives. Lessons Data showed that myths and false information are spreading through different means from public figures to daily social media outlets. Fighting misinformation should use innovative and accessible approaches. There is urgent need for national initiatives and political engagement for myth-busting. IFMSA and WHO are following up by designing a platform to share fact-checking initiatives and recommendations openly, and by creating an AI system with Amazon to analyze articles in social media. Key messages Fact-checking and myth-busting are essential to limit the COVID-19 related infodemic spreading through different media and social media platforms, famous figures and others. Initiatives worldwide are doing fact-checking. Yet, the quality and quantity of available fact-checking differ between countries and there is a need for more universal good quality fact-checking.

scholarly journals Intentional or inadvertent fake news sharing? Fact-checking warnings and users’ interaction with social media content

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu ◽  
Patricia Delponti ◽  
Carmen Rodríguez-Wangüemert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
False News ◽  
News Sharing

The main social media platforms have been implementing strategies to minimize fake news dissemination. These include identifying, labeling, and penalizing –via news feed ranking algorithms– fake publications. Part of the rationale behind this approach is that the negative effects of fake content arise only when social media users are deceived. Once debunked, fake posts and news stories should therefore become harmless. Unfortunately, the literature shows that the effects of misinformation are more complex and tend to persist and even backfire after correction. Furthermore, we still do not know much about how social media users evaluate content that has been fact-checked and flagged as false. More worryingly, previous findings suggest that some people may intentionally share made up news on social media, although their motivations are not fully explained. To better understand users’ interaction with social media content identified or recognized as false, we analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five focus groups and a sub-national online survey (N = 350). Findings suggest that the label of ‘false news’ plays a role –although not necessarily central– in social media users’ evaluation of the content and their decision (not) to share it. Some participants showed distrust in fact-checkers and lack of knowledge about the fact-checking process. We also found that fake news sharing is a two-dimensional phenomenon that includes intentional and unintentional behaviors. We discuss some of the reasons why some of social media users may choose to distribute fake news content intentionally.

scholarly journals Mapping Nefarious Social Media Actors to Speed-up Covid-19 Fact-checking

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Giglietto ◽  
Manolo Farci ◽  
Giada Marino ◽  
Serena Mottola ◽  
Tommaso Radicioni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Prototype Tool ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Information Operations ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
The University

This report presents the outcomes of a project aimed at developing and testing a prototype tool that supports and speeds-up the work of fact-checkers and de-bunkers by surfacing and ranking potentially problematic information circulated on social media with a content-agnostic approach. The tool itself is the result of a multi-year research activity carried on within the Mapping Italian News Research Program of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo to study the strategies, tactics and goals of information operations aimed at manipulating the Italian public opinion by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the contemporary media ecosystem. This research activity led to developing original studies, public reports, new methods, maps and tools employed to study the activity of Italian nefarious social media actors aimed at amplifying the reach and impact of problematic information by coordinating their efforts. Tracking these actors proved instrumental to observe the “infodemic” unraveling during the early days of COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Combining this existing knowledge with a range of original tools and data sources provided by Meta’s Facebook Open Research Initiative (Fort) and by The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter, the report: documents those early days by highlighting a list of widely viewed and interacted links circulated on Facebook; traces the establishment, growth and evolution of Italian covid-skeptic coordinated networks on Facebook; presents a comprehensive and updated map of the activities performed by these networks of nefarious social media actors; unveils a set of original tactics and strategies employed by these actors to adjust their operations to the mitigation efforts adopted by social media platforms to reduce the spread of problematic information; describes the circulation of three specific piece of problematic information; provides an overview of the outcomes of the testing phase (carried out in collaboration with Facta.news) of a prototype tool that surfaces and ranks potentially problematic information circulated on social media with a content-agnostic approach.

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