COVID-19 Related Misinformation on Social Media: A Qualitative Study from Iran (Preprint)

Abstract

Background: During outbreaks of diseases a great amount of health threatening misinformation is produced and released. In the web-2 era much of this misinformation is disseminated via social media where information could spread easily and quickly. Monitoring social media content provides crucial insights for health managers to manage the crisis.

Objective: Given the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 outbreak, this study was aimed to analyze contents of the most commonly used social networks in Iran that is among the affected countries.

Methods: A social media monitoring conducted through a qualitative design to analyze the discussions of social media users about the content related to COVID-19 transferred via Iranian medical faculty members` groups in Telegram and Whats App during Feb 20 to March 20, 2020 emphasizing the misinformation. Discourse analysis was applied and the written dialogues and discussions regarding misinformation about different aspects of the outbreak between medical faculty members all over the country were analyzed.

Results: Cultural factors, demand pressure for information during the crisis, the easiness of information dissemination via social networks, marketing incentives and the poor legal supervision of online contents are the main reasons of misinformation dissemination. Disease statistics; treatments, vaccines and medicines; prevention and protection methods; dietary recommendations and disease transmission ways are the main subjective categories of releasing misinformation regarding novel coronavirus outbreak. Consequences of misinformation dissemination regarding disease include psychosocial; economic; health status; health system and ethical ones. Active and effective presence of health professionals and authorities on social media during the crisis and the improvement of public health literacy in the long term are the most recommended strategies for dealing with issues related to misinformation.

Conclusion: This study contributes the management of COVID-19 outbreak trough providing applicable insights for health managers to manage public information in this challenging time.