Reliability of information about covid-19 in Facebook groups
The study presented in this article analyzed the reliability of information posted in the main Brazilian discussion groups about covid-19 found in Facebook. The groups (open and closed) were identified from the descriptors: “covid 19”; “covid 19 Brazil”; “coronavirus”; “Coronavirus Brazil”. The grou...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Recursos: | Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) |
| Repositorio: | RECIIS (Online) |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.reciis.icict.fiocruz.br:article/3320 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://www.reciis.icict.fiocruz.br/index.php/reciis/article/view/3320 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Covid-19 Desinformação Redes Sociais Saúde Disinformation Social media Health Desinformación Redes sociales Salud |
| Resumo: | The study presented in this article analyzed the reliability of information posted in the main Brazilian discussion groups about covid-19 found in Facebook. The groups (open and closed) were identified from the descriptors: “covid 19”; “covid 19 Brazil”; “coronavirus”; “Coronavirus Brazil”. The groups with the highest number of members (n = 10) were selected for the study, as well as the ten most recent publications of each of them as long as they referred to the key themes related to covid-19: prevention, treatment, and contagion. To verify the reliability of the information expressed in the disseminated content, the posts containing news about the disease were subjected to inspection and compared to reliable sources (fact checking technique), such as guides and manuals concerning covid-19. Among all the publications analyzed (n = 100) only four were identified as fake news, being two about treatment, one about contagion and one about sequelae. All the news considered untrue were classified as fabricated news, constructed with a sensationalist and appealing headline to attract the attention of users. However, the contents identified as false promoted few interactions among group members. In this study, the news-related information found in Facebook groups about covid-19 was mostly reliable, suggesting that online social media filters to identify and remove fake news from circulation can be a useful tool to combat the dissemination of fake news. |
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