Interactive mapping of Covid-19 disinformation in Ibero-America

Abstract

Fake news, created with different intentions and disseminated through various social networks and messaging platforms, has become a significant means of disinformation in the current landscape. In the face of certain events or controversial situations, the number of fake new items increases, a situation that can become worrying. One such event was the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. To combat this phenomenon, various fact-checking bodies appeared with the objective of demonstrating and disseminating whether a certain piece of information was correct. At the international level, these organizations have joined together in the #CoronaVirusFacts/#DatosCoronaVirus Alliance. The organization Chequeado from Argentina has collected information coming from Latin American (Latam) countries plus Spain and Portugal in a specific database, which allows for their analysis on an independent basis. The objective of this work is to analyze and make graphically visible the thematic distribution, media typology, and digital formats of the fake news that circulated regarding the coronavirus pandemic in Ibero-America by means of the social network analysis technique (SNA) and others, using the information from the aforementioned database. Its final visualization is shown by means of interactive mapping, which can be manipulated by the user to analyze the results through the application of different integrated filtering strategies.