How coordinated link sharing behavior and partisans’ narrative framing fan the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories

• DOI: 10.1007/s13278-022-00948-y
• Publication Date: 2022-08-20T04:02:32Z
• Authors: Anatoliy Gruzd; Philip Mai; Felipe Bonow Soares
• Keywords: Misinformation; Hydroxychloroquine; Framing (construction); STELLA (programming language)

This study examines the presence and role of Coordinated Link Sharing Behavior (CLSB) on Facebook around "America's Frontline Doctors" press conference, promotion several unproven conspiracy theories including false assertion that hydroxychloroquine is a "cure" for COVID-19 by Dr. Stella Immanuel, one doctors who took part in conference. We collected 7,737 public posts mentioning Immanuel using CrowdTangle then applied specialized program CooRnet to detect CLSB among pages, groups verified profiles. Finally, we used mixed-method approach consisting both network content analysis examine nature scope detected CLSB. Our shows how accounts engaged fuel spread misinformation. identified coalition promote related included US-based pro-Trump, QAnon, anti-vaccination accounts. In addition, other countries, such as Brazil France, primarily promoted hydroxychloroquine, some African countries criticized government's pandemic response their countries.