The Instagram Infodemic Persists

The general cobranding of conspiracy theories and COVID-19 misinformation has been shared at an alarming rate on social media platforms. Instagram has attempted an initiative to flag and/or remove health misinformation and/or disinformation; however, the efficacy of these efforts has been unclear. This study aimed to re-examine 300 posts collected in a previous study evaluating trends in misinformation removal process on Instagram. One hundred eighty-three of 300 original posts remained on the platform, most of which were from the hashtag #hoax. Only one post was flagged for containing false information, despite presence in more than one post. The claims that the platform is removing or flagging misinformation does not align with these findings and amplifies the concern for public safety for Instagram users. Sharing and removal patterns among the 300 posts suggest that conspiracy theorists or those exposed to the inaccurate information may be at higher risk of believing and propagating other unsupported theories

Advertising · Business · Computer security · Disinformation · False accusation · Flagging · Hoax · Internet privacy · Misinformation · Political science · Social media · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · History · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy

• The Instagram Infodemic

  Open Access•Emma K Quinn, Sajjad S Fazel et al.•Cyberpsychology Behavior and…•2021

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• Fighting Covid-19 Misinformation on Social Media

  Open Access•Gordon Pennycook, Jonathon Mcphetres et al.•Psychological Science•2020

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• Use of bot and content flags to limit the spread of misinformation among social networks

  Open Access•Candice Lanius, Ryan Weber et al.•Social Network Analysis and Mining•2021

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