# Analysis of misinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: cultural, social and political entanglements

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.10414 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.10414/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 May 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Findings of the NLP4IF-2021 Shared Tasks on Fighting the COVID-19 Infodemic and Censorship Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12986/) (2021)
- [QCRI's COVID-19 Disinformation Detector: A System to Fight the COVID-19 Infodemic in Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03506/) (2022)
- [Eating Garlic Prevents COVID-19 Infection: Detecting Misinformation on the Arabic Content of Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05626/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

COVID-19 resulted in an infodemic, which could erode public trust, impede virus containment, and outlive the pandemic itself. The evolving and fragmented media landscape is a key driver of the spread of misinformation. Using misinformation identified by the fact-checking platform by Tencent and posts on Weibo, our results showed that the evolution of misinformation follows an issue-attention cycle, pertaining to topics such as city lockdown, cures, and preventions, and school reopening. Sources of authority weigh in on these topics, but their influence is complicated by peoples' pre-existing beliefs and cultural practices. Finally, social media has a complicated relationship with established or legacy media systems. Sometimes they reinforce each other, but in general, social media may have a topic cycle of its own making. Our findings shed light on the distinct characteristics of misinformation during the COVID-19 and offer insights into combating misinformation in China and across the world at large.