Americans are super-distributors of COVID-19 misinformation: study

Incorrect information about COVID-19 spread from the United States to Canada, undermining efforts to mitigate the pandemic. A study led by McGill University shows that Canadians who use social media are more likely to digest this misinformation, accept false beliefs about COVID-19 and then spread it.

Many Canadians believe that conspiracy theories, poor medical advice and information downplay the virus – although newspapers and political leaders in the country have usually focused on providing reliable scientific information. So how does misinformation spread so fast?

“Many Canadians struggle to understand COVID-19 denial and anti-vaccination attitudes among their loved ones,” says lead author Aengus Bridgman, a doctor. Candidate in Political Science at McGill University under the supervision of Dietlind Stolle. According to the study, published in Boundaries in Political Science, these attitudes are in part due to massive consumption of information from the United States.

The researchers analyzed the behavior of the 200,000 most active Canadian Twitter users and conducted surveys on Canadian news usage habits and COVID-19 beliefs. They found that those who use social media are relatively more exposed to U.S. information than domestic information sources, and that exposure to U.S. news agencies is accompanied by misperceptions about COVID-19.

They also found that most of the misinformation shared on Canadians on Twitter was retweeted from US sources. Canadians who followed more American users would probably post incorrect information.

Canada is not immune to US infodemia

Although there is a Canadian agreement between the parties on the fight against COVID-19, the political climate in the United States is quite different. South of the border, there is intense polarization over the severity of the pandemic, with misinformation being reinforced by US media and political figures.

Information disseminated in the United States also has a major impact on Canadian, for better or worse. This is especially true in social media spaces, where Canadians are one of the heaviest users – one in two is on Instagram, five out of six on Facebook and two out of five on Twitter. In addition, Canadians pay particular attention to American media. “On average, they follow three times as many Americans as Canadians on Twitter, and retweet them eight times more frequently,” says co-author Taylor Owen, associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.

According to the researchers, this impact poses a worrying vulnerability for Canada during the pandemic. “It’s hard for Canadian journalists, scientists and public health experts to be heard by the average Canadian, given all the noise generated by American sources,” says Bridgman. “Countries with journalists and political leaders who do not engage in conspiracy theories or are considered anti-scientific views are simply not immune to dangerous infodemia.”

Finding a cure

Although many Canadians prefer to consume news from the U.S., social media platforms are likely to play a key role in deepening this interest, the researchers say.

Not only do their algorithms saturate information streams with American news, they also spread fake news much faster than factual news. By favoring content that elicits emotional responses from users, the algorithms help to spread misinformation like a wildfire.

Governments that want to limit the spread of infodemics should consider the ways in which social media platforms send foreign information to the top of the news stream. “This infodemia has the ability to change important attitudes and behaviors that affect the transmission patterns of COVID-19. Ultimately, it can change the magnitude and mortality of a pandemic,” says Owen.