🔍InfoEpi Lab Study on X (formerly Twitter): This study analyzed content in three categories: Israel-Hamas, Ukraine, and vaccines. Posts from accounts with top tweets in multiple categories were significantly more negative than average.
BRIEF: infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-study-brief
Trio-authors: 37 accounts had high-performance tweets across all three topics, henceforth called trio-authors. While some were relevant experts or community leaders, many were armchair experts with problematic track records. infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-israel-ukraine-vaccines#def-definitions
Ties to State Media: Some trio-authors have worked with state media from autocratic countries. As X no longer suppresses them, they are not only reaching more people, but those other users are more likely to be misled by them. infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-study-brief
Sentiment Analysis: As mentioned, the trio-authors were notably more negative than the average user. You can see in the data visualization how posts from accounts that had high-performance tweets on multiple topics become more polarized. infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-Israel-ukraine-vaccines#sentiment-analysis
Overshadowing Credible Sources: Armchair experts and pundits often eclipsed genuine experts, community leaders, and credible media. Many have a history of false claims, especially about vaccines or related to Ukraine. infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-study-brief
Influence Illustration: One user with no relevant expertise, personal connection, or unique insight into the situations outshone nearly all the most relevant voices, such as people affected by armed conflict and their community leaders. Definitions: infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-israel-ukraine-vaccines#def-definitions
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine received 1.1 million engagements over the two weeks, while the example user received over 3x the number of engagements related to Ukraine.
Exceptional tweets from this user were not limited to the topic of Ukraine. They posted more tweets receiving 20,000+ likes than the Israeli state, the Israel Defense Forces, and the President of the United States COMBINED.
infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-israel-ukraine-vaccines#author-rankings
Concern: These results raise concerns about the potential real-world consequences of an influential platform’s decline into information disorder. False information about public health can escalate tensions or discourage vaccine uptake, directly impacting lives.
False information related to armed conflict can have life-or-death consequences, and in some cases, the information itself can be a domain of warfare. infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-study-brief
Definitions, keywords, and specifics can be found in the full report.
Full Report: infoepi.org/posts/2023/10/24-israel-ukraine-vaccines
E. Rosalie @erosalie.infoepi.com
@Info_Rosalie
Public health + national security • Johns Hopkins alum • Tracking mysterious weaponized pigeons and FIMI • Most likely building a database somewhere