In this new article by BIDS Faculty Affiliate Hany Farid (a professor of EECS and in the School of Information at UC Berkeley) and colleague Sophie Nightingale (a postdoctoral scholar in Berkeley's School of Information), they report on the results of their global survey of health-, political-, and conspiratorial-based misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. They've found "a troubling reach of and belief in COVID-related misinformation, as well as a correlation with those that primarily consume news from social media, and, in the United States, a strong correlation with political leaning." Understanding how misinformation and conspiracies are proliferated online, and the extent of their influence, will be vital to managing our current crises, as well as future crises.
Examining the Global Spread of COVID-19 Misinformation
January 27, 2021 | Sophie Nightingale, Hany Farid | arXiv.org
