Fact-Checking on COVID-19 After a Year of Global Infodemic. Analysis of Digital Misinformation in Spain, Portugal and Latin America

Abstract

Based on a theoretical framework on the role of journalism in combating contemporary information disorders, this research aims to determine the characteristics of digital misinformation about COVID-19, explore how it circulated across nations, and address the possible correlation between the demand for information on the disease and the frequency of related news stories that required to be verified. For that purpose, content analysis is performed on the fact-checks conducted by 35 fact-checking organizations based in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America during the year after the declaration of global emergency (n = 2,868 fact-checks). Among the conclusions, we found that the vast majority of fact-checked information was rated as false or misleading and was spread primarily in textual format. The predominance of fact-checks of viral content shared through social media and messaging apps—mainly Facebook and WhatsApp—is also confirmed, as well as that of misinformation about treatments and cures. Our study demonstrates the high permeability with which fake news spread between the countries studied, given that false content had a rate of transnational mobility four times higher than true stories. Finally, we corroborate the positive and very strong correlation existing in the first months of the pandemic between the number of fact-checks conducted and the global searches on the keyword “COVID-19” that Google Trends registered.