COVID-19 misinformation: Accuracy of articles about coronavirus prevention mostly shared on social media

To analyze accuracy of articles about COVID-19 prevention most frequently shared through social media platforms.

Identifying, using the Buzzsumo analytic tool, 30 most frequently shared articles in April 2020 about COVID-19 prevention and classifying them according to number of shares, accuracy, topic and sharing platform. Calculations were made using descriptive statistics tools and chi-square test.

The top 30 articles about coronavirus prevention were shared 4904 160 times over a period of one month with 96.8% of all shares through Facebook. Most of the articles (80%) was found to be accurate, however they accounted for only 64% of shares. The inaccuracies referred mostly to handwashing. The most shared articles were about medications followed by masks and hand washing.

Articles about coronavirus prevention are usually accurate, yet relatively less likely to be shared than inaccurate ones. Facebook remains a dominant social media platform for sharing content. Buzzsumo could be considered a tool in certain situations such as pandemic for health authorities to quickly investigate different health topics popular on social media.

Most of the articles about COVID-19 prevention, identified as most frequently shared through social media platform during the pandemic, was found to be accurate. However, inaccurate content was more likely to be shared than by Facebook users compared with accurate content. This suggests the need for health authorities to monitor content shared on social media in extraordinary situations such as pandemics.