scholarly journals Moroccan Social Media Platforms and COVID-19 Misinformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Hanane Aboulghazi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Crisis Situations

COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ and an over-abundance of disinformation that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Young Moroccan internet users resort to social media for their news, and easily fall prey to the misinformation and fake news they encounter online. When it concerns public health, disinformation can turn into a lethal weapon. This is further exacerbated at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this, the present research paper answers the research questions using a qualitative method, particularly semi-structured interviews preferable  in exploratory  research where the purpose is to gain an understanding of spreading online misinformation in the age of COVID-19. Semi-structured Interviews are conducted via “Google Meet” and “Zoom” using video-conferencing among 12 young Moroccan social media activists and professionals. The main research findings have shown that young Moroccan social media users have been consuming fake news about the Coronavirus, which has been especially prevalent on the most popular platforms, Facebook, Whats App and YouTube. Other results have shown that the mainstream media failed to debunk misinformation by subjecting them to rigorous fact checking experiments, lack of Media Information Literacy research in the form of crisis audits and crisis planning, Moroccan social media are ill prepared for crisis manual and conducting crisis training. These ensure that media regulators are not better equipped to handle any  misinformation in health crisis situations. Therefore, media literacy is not only about how to use the computer and do an internet search, it also involves helping young Moroccan people to deal with disinformation in crisis situations, and realize that anyone anywhere can put up a very official-looking websites. These websites masquerade as high-credibility sources that have been spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Therefore, the government needs.

scholarly journals COVID-19-Related Social Media Fake News in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Sayeed Al-Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Audio Video

COVID-19-related online fake news poses a threat to Indian public health. In response, this study seeks to understand the five important features of COVID-19-related social media fake news by analyzing 125 Indian fake news. The analysis produces five major findings based on five research questions. First, the seven themes of fake news are health, religiopolitical, political, crime, entertainment, religious, and miscellaneous. Health-related fake news (67.2%) is on the top of the list that includes medicine, medical and healthcare facilities, viral infection, and doctor-patient issues. Second, the seven types of fake news contents are text, photo, audio, video, text and photo, text and video, and text and photo and video. More fake news takes the form of text and video (47.2%). Third, online media produces more fake news (94.4%) than mainstream media (5.6%). More interestingly, four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, produce most of the fake news. Fourth, relatively more fake news has international connections (54.4%) as the COVID-19 pandemic is a global phenomenon. Fifth, most of the COVID-19-related fake news is negative (63.2%) which could be a real threat to public health. These results may contribute to the academic understanding of social media fake news during the present and future health-crisis period. This paper concludes by stating some limitations regarding the data source and results, as well as provides a few suggestions for further research.

scholarly journals Fake and Real News detection Using Python

2020 ◽  
pp. 423-428
Author(s):  
Fakhra Akhtar ◽  
Faizan Ahmed Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Negative Attributes ◽  
Entire Dataset ◽  
F Measure

<p>In the digital age, fake news has become a well-known phenomenon. The spread of false evidence is often used to confuse mainstream media and political opponents, and can lead to social media wars, hatred arguments and debates.Fake news is blurring the distinction between real and false information, and is often spread on social media resulting in negative views and opinions. Earlier Research describe the fact that false propaganda is used to create false stories on mainstream media in order to cause a revolt and tension among the masses The digital rights foundation DRF report, which builds on the experiences of 152 journalists and activists in Pakistan, presents that more than 88 % of the participants find social media platforms as the worst source for information, with Facebook being the absolute worst. The dataset used in this paper relates to Real and fake news detection. The objective of this paper is to determine the Accuracy , precision , of the entire dataset .The results are visualized in the form of graphs and the analysis was done using python. The results showed the fact that the dataset holds 95% of the accuracy. The number of actual predicted cases were 296. Results of this paper reveals that The accuracy of the model dataset is 95.26 % the precision results 95.79 % whereas recall and F-Measure shows 94.56% and 95.17% accuracy respectively.Whereas in predicted models there are 296 positive attributes , 308 negative attributes 17 false positives and 13 false negatives. This research recommends that authenticity of news should be analysed first instead of drafting an opinion, sharing fake news or false information is considered unethical journalists and news consumers both should act responsibly while sharing any news.</p>

scholarly journals IS FAKE NEWS SPREADING MORE RAPIDLY THAN COVID-19 IN INDIA?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 208-220 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Red Tape ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government

Fake news is not a new phenomenon. With the mushrooming of smartphone users and the easy access to the internet, fake news is spreading at very high speed from people to people. Why do people flagrantly believe fake news? Why don‟t people fact-check before sharing information with others? etc., are still some of the questions unanswered. The panic created by fake news during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak is also not less. Hence, this study aims to focus on understanding people‟s perspectives on controlling the spread of fake news on social media. The respective study is based on quantitative data analysis of the responses of 300 social media users across India, collected online in April 2020 during a nationwide lockdown. The study arrived at a conclusion stating that self-regulation may not deliver a proper effect on controlling the spread of fake news. But, organising effective campaigns to build social media literacy can be one of the potential measures that can be implemented in order to control the spread of fake news over social media platforms. The respondents of the study also agree to bring-in a national policy and a national regulatory body control the spread of fake news over social media platforms. Hence, this particular study can support the Government of India to make decisions to roll out regulatory measures to control the spread of fake news through social media, which is still on the red tape.

scholarly journals Twitter Based Digital Social Movement Pattern to Fight COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Mohammad Thoriq Bahri ◽  
Derajad Sulistyo Widhyharto
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Ordinary Person

Twitter has become a tool for people to trigger a social change, like what is happening right now during COVID-19 outbreaks. Most people are using social media platforms to express their perspectives. For the first time, this research aimed to analyze the pattern of a social movement that happened during COVID-19 Outbreaks by analyzing the Twitter dataset contains 23,476 tweets worldwide with the #COVID19 hashtag which was obtained from 02 March to 09 April 2020. Social Network Analysis tools are used to understand the pattern of movement. This research concluded that if the Government and Mainstream Media Twitter account triggered the conversation in the social media platform, followed by the activists and celebrities who engage in conversation between their followers, an ordinary person spread the point of view of the Government and Mainstream Media across their conversation network. The COVID-19 hashtag successfully engaged 10 protest clusters, which pushed the people to fight against COVID-19 in their countries, mostly targeting the government-related account. The digital social movement pattern is relatively different from the traditional social movement, even it has the same steps, which emerge, coalesce, bureaucratise, and the movement itself, but it takes place in the Digital Public Sphere without any social or political boundaries. The digital social movement forced the government to implement a better policy to fight the COVID-19 Pandemic, including to close the national border to prevent unnecessary effects of International Migration.

scholarly journals The Negative Impact of Social Media during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-507
Author(s):  
Astha Kumari
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
World Information

It has been observed that social media platforms have had both a positive and negative effect on how India has dealt with the COVID 19 pandemic. As the coronavirus took over the world, many took to social media to learn about how the virus spreads and what it is. Although this helped inform everyone on how to take precautions against this deadly virus, a lot of the information that users were reading was not verified or fact-checked and labeled as "fake news". In the modern world, information is spread very quickly through a variety of social media platforms. Because of this, there was widespread panic even before the COVID-19 virus had even reached India. Many citizens bought an excessive surplus of supplies such as masks, hand sanitizers, and food, which ultimately led to a shortage of these supplies for the 1.3 billion people in this country. The shortage of supplies along with the lockdown process which severely impacted the economy has led to an increase in price to the majority of essential products such as food, hand sanitizers, masks, etc. The most affected were the average day workers. Social media has caused widespread panic and hogging of essential supplies along with false facts of the virus itself, however, there are some things that we have benefited from due to social media. For example, social media has shown us the importance of social distancing and activities that we can do to keep our mental health in check while under lockdown. In short, I believe social media should be regulated and kept under watch by the government in certain aspects when it comes to spreading information about pandemics like covid19. If regulated properly we can avoid mass panic and anarchy and will be able to survive this pandemic as one.

scholarly journals Level of Acceptance of News Stories on Social Media Platforms Among Youth in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-225
Author(s):  
Festus Prosper Olise ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
States Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
And Gender

This study investigates the level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms among youth in Nigeria following the assumption that the proliferation of news stories on social media promotes the circulation of both factual and fake news. The sample consisted of 600 youth; however, 583 validly participated in the study. The participants were equitably selected in six States in Nigeria that represented the six geo-political zones of the country. The multi-stage sampling technique was employed to evenly select the youth from the major cities/towns in the States. Data generated were analysed and presented through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 20 software. Results show that the youth accepted entertainment news stories more than any other type of news stories on social media platforms. The majority of the youth considered Twitter as the most acceptable social media platform for receiving news stories in Nigeria. Findings also revealed that despite their love to read news stories on social media platforms, the youth’s level of acceptance of it was low. Furthermore, the age and gender of the youth were found to directly influence their level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms. The study concluded that the multi-dimensional inter-play that characterised the low level of acceptance of news stories on social media platforms among the youth in Nigeria does not portend ominous signs. Keywords: Acceptance, mainstream media, news stories, social media platforms, youth.

Facade of media and social media during COVID-19: A review

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 142-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Chandan Srivastava ◽  
Deepti Shrivastava ◽  
Kumar Gaurav Chhabra ◽  
Waqar Naqvi ◽  
Arti Sahu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) arose in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon it spread to other countries worldwide to become a pandemic. Globally, governments enforced quarantine and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the infection. Mass media and social media platforms played a crucial role in providing information regarding the Coronavirus. Since little is known about COVID-19, various fake news, misinformation and rumours spread across the digital media that panicked people into making panic decisions. The rapid spread of misinformation and stories via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube became a vital concern of the government and public health authorities. Medical misinformation and unverifiable content about the COVID-19 pandemic are spreading on social media at an unprecedented pace. Mitigating the advent of rumours and misinformation during the COVID-19 epidemic is crucial, since misinformation and fake news creates panic, fear and anxiety among people, predisposing them to various mental health conditions. Instead of considering social media as a secondary medium, it should be utilised to convey important information. Besides, it allows citizens to address their queries directly. Several governments across the world have taken actions to contain the pandemic of misinformation, yet measures are required to prevent such communication complications.

scholarly journals COVID-19, Tourism, and Nepalese Leisure Travelers’ Willingness to Travel

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-117
Author(s):  
Rajiv Dahal
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Convenience Sampling ◽  
Leisure Travelers ◽  
The Government ◽  
June July

The paper aims to explore and understand COVID-19 and its effect on tourism in Nepal. More specifically, the study intends to find out Nepalese leisure travelers’ past traveling behavior and their willingness to travel once the government of Nepal relaxes the COVID-19 related lockdown and measures. The study used exploratory research design and used a survey method to find out respondents’ opinions on aspects of COVID-19 and tourism. The use of convenience sampling for collecting responses yielded 316 responses through email and social media platforms that lasted for three weeks in June - July 2020. The research revealed that most of the respondents are less affected by COVID-19 and are willing to take a holiday/vacation once there is relaxation of the COVID-19 measures. The majority of the respondents believed tourism as a significant part of the Nepalese economy, and expected tourism in Nepal would recover from the COVID situation.

scholarly journals STUDY OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF FAKE NEWS (HOAX) THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED TO THE COVID-19 VACCINE AND PREVENTION EFFORTS TO SUPPORT MASS EXECUTION VACCINE IN INDONESIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. 18-29
Author(s):  
Gideon Satria Putra Sugiyanto ◽  
Annisa Sabrina Nur Arrasy ◽  
Sweeta Melanie
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Depth Interviews

The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on in Indonesia for more than a year since the beginning of 2020. This pandemic has certainly had many negative impacts, both macro, and micro. The Indonesian government has made a lot of efforts to tackle this pandemic both operationally and in socialization to reduce the further spread of vaccine efforts throughout Indonesia. But unfortunately, there is the challenge of spreading fake news related to the COVID-19 vaccine that is troubling the public. The spread of fake news happened quite quickly with digital communication using social media. Research using qualitative methods examines the condition of socialization communication related to the COVID-19 vaccine, fake news, and efforts to overcome it through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results of the study show that there has been a lot of communication and socialization carried out by the government regarding the COVID-19 vaccine but it has not been structured in one source and there is still minimal anticipation of fake news. As a result, a lot of fake news has spread widely in the community regarding COVID-19, starting from issues related to health and beyond health or safety. Efforts that can be made to minimize the spread of fake news and its dangers include collaboration with various stakeholders, mass and periodic socialization and education on various social media channels, strict penalties for spreading fake news, providing social media platforms or channels to file complaints, create educational content and creative counter-narrative.

scholarly journals Intelligent Detection of False Information in Arabic Tweets Utilizing Hybrid Harris Hawks Based Feature Selection and Machine Learning Models

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 556
Author(s):  
Thaer Thaher ◽  
Mahmoud Saheb ◽  
Hamza Turabieh ◽  
Hamouda Chantar
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Feature Selection ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
User Profile ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Fake or false information on social media platforms is a significant challenge that leads to deliberately misleading users due to the inclusion of rumors, propaganda, or deceptive information about a person, organization, or service. Twitter is one of the most widely used social media platforms, especially in the Arab region, where the number of users is steadily increasing, accompanied by an increase in the rate of fake news. This drew the attention of researchers to provide a safe online environment free of misleading information. This paper aims to propose a smart classification model for the early detection of fake news in Arabic tweets utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, Machine Learning (ML) models, and Harris Hawks Optimizer (HHO) as a wrapper-based feature selection approach. Arabic Twitter corpus composed of 1862 previously annotated tweets was utilized by this research to assess the efficiency of the proposed model. The Bag of Words (BoW) model is utilized using different term-weighting schemes for feature extraction. Eight well-known learning algorithms are investigated with varying combinations of features, including user-profile, content-based, and words-features. Reported results showed that the Logistic Regression (LR) with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) model scores the best rank. Moreover, feature selection based on the binary HHO algorithm plays a vital role in reducing dimensionality, thereby enhancing the learning model’s performance for fake news detection. Interestingly, the proposed BHHO-LR model can yield a better enhancement of 5% compared with previous works on the same dataset.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document