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Misinformation, manipulation, and abuse on social media in the era of COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Emilio Ferrara

    (University of Southern California)

  • Stefano Cresci

    (National Research Council (IIT-CNR))

  • Luca Luceri

    (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI))

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represented an unprecedented setting for the spread of online misinformation, manipulation, and abuse, with the potential to cause dramatic real-world consequences. The aim of this special issue was to collect contributions investigating issues such as the emergence of infodemics, misinformation, conspiracy theories, automation, and online harassment on the onset of the coronavirus outbreak. Articles in this collection adopt a diverse range of methods and techniques, and focus on the study of the narratives that fueled conspiracy theories, on the diffusion patterns of COVID-19 misinformation, on the global news sentiment, on hate speech and social bot interference, and on multimodal Chinese propaganda. The diversity of the methodological and scientific approaches undertaken in the aforementioned articles demonstrates the interdisciplinarity of these issues. In turn, these crucial endeavors might anticipate a growing trend of studies where diverse theories, models, and techniques will be combined to tackle the different aspects of online misinformation, manipulation, and abuse.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilio Ferrara & Stefano Cresci & Luca Luceri, 2020. "Misinformation, manipulation, and abuse on social media in the era of COVID-19," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 271-277, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jcsosc:v:3:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s42001-020-00094-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s42001-020-00094-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lisa Singh & Leticia Bode & Ceren Budak & Kornraphop Kawintiranon & Colton Padden & Emily Vraga, 2020. "Understanding high- and low-quality URL Sharing on COVID-19 Twitter streams," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 343-366, November.
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    4. Shadi Shahsavari & Pavan Holur & Tianyi Wang & Timothy R. Tangherlini & Vwani Roychowdhury, 2020. "Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 279-317, November.
    5. Austin Horng-En Wang & Mei-chun Lee & Min-Hsuan Wu & Puma Shen, 2020. "Influencing overseas Chinese by tweets: text-images as the key tactic of Chinese propaganda," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 469-486, November.
    6. Nicholas Francis Havey, 2020. "Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 319-342, November.
    7. Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, 2018. "Fighting fake news: a role for computational social science in the fight against digital misinformation," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 147-153, January.
    8. Joshua Uyheng & Kathleen M. Carley, 2020. "Bots and online hate during the COVID-19 pandemic: case studies in the United States and the Philippines," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 445-468, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ekaterina Veselinovna Teneva, 2023. "Digital Pseudo-Identification in the Post-Truth Era: Exploring Logical Fallacies in the Mainstream Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Vaccines," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Federica Maria Magarini & Margherita Pinelli & Arianna Sinisi & Silvia Ferrari & Giovanna Laura De Fazio & Gian Maria Galeazzi, 2021. "Irrational Beliefs about COVID-19: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Juan Luis Manfredi-Sánchez, 2023. "Vaccine (public) diplomacy: legitimacy narratives in the pandemic age," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 398-410, September.
    4. Khlystova, Olena & Kalyuzhnova, Yelena & Belitski, Maksim, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1192-1210.
    5. Sameera Horawalavithana & Ravindu Silva & Nipuna Weerasekara & N G Kin Wai & Mohamed Nabeel & Buddhini Abayaratna & Charitha Elvitigala & Primal Wijesekera & Adriana Iamnitchi, 2023. "Vaccination trials on hold: malicious and low credibility content on Twitter during the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine development," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 448-469, September.
    6. Cristina Alvarez-Peregrina & Cesar Villa-Collar & Clara Martinez-Perez & María Ibeth Peñaloza Barbosa & Miguel Ángel Sánchez-Tena, 2022. "Social Media Impact of Myopia Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-11, June.
    7. Wen-zhong Shi & Fanxin Zeng & Anshu Zhang & Chengzhuo Tong & Xiaoqi Shen & Zhewei Liu & Zhicheng Shi, 2022. "Online public opinion during the first epidemic wave of COVID-19 in China based on Weibo data," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.

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