COVID-19 infodemic on Facebook: a social network analysis in Thai context

ABSTRACT Many studies on the COVID-19 infodemic cover a fairly short period and focus on the West. This research aims at filling this knowledge gap by examining the infodemic on Facebook in the context of Thailand, covering a more extended period (19 months). The objectives are to gain insights into how COVID-19 information pollution is propagated and how well the counternarratives penetrate the users, as well as to spell out prevalent types of information pollution and trends. The network analysis result shows that both debunking/fact-checked and information pollution networks are similar in terms of structures and spread patterns, reflecting a disposition of echo chambers. The attempt to distribute counternarratives to empower the users largely could not penetrate those who usually interact with the information pollution or vice versa. Claims about herbal medicines form the largest proportion of the dataset, and this highlights the uniqueness of contextual influence over the infodemic. The lessons learned from this study could contribute to policymaking concerning pandemic communication and media and information literacy. An understanding of the problem in its context could lead to the development of appropriate and effective responses as well as means to tackle the current and future phenomena of the infodemic.