A scoping review of COVID-19 online mis/disinformation in Black communities

Mis/disinformation has reached an epidemic level with the COVID-19 virus and can be largely attributed to the growing digitalization of information and its rapid transmission via social media. Approximately 96% of Canadians and 80% of Americans report encountering COVID-19 dis/misinformation on at least one social media site/app. COVID-19 dis/misinformation promotes scepticism and a lack of confidence in COVID-19 interventions. Black people have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of negative impacts on their livelihoods and are also more likely to be hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Dis/misinformation contributes to high rates of COVID-19 infection and low uptake of COVID-19 vaccination. Hence, the purpose of this scoping review was to map out the nature and extent of current research on COVID-19 disinformation among Blacks in Africa and the African diaspora.

We searched and reviewed articles from major databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Our search strategy involved the following concepts: 1) COVID-19, including variants; 2) misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news, and modes of misinformation transmission such as social media; and 3) Blacks or people of African descent, or the African diaspora. We retrieved 600 articles that were independently screened by two researchers. We included studies focusing on 1) Black people living inside or outside Africa; and 2) COVID-19 online dis/misinformation among this population. A total of 19 studies fit our inclusion criteria. We used a thematic analysis to analyse qualitative data.

Our findings indicate Black people are accessing and often sharing online disinformation and misinformation primarily through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Dis/misinformation concerns the origin of COVID-19, transmission, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19, assertions of race immunity to the virus, distrust in government and health organizations, and intervention research and programming.

There is a global paucity of literature addressing COVID-19 online dis/misinformation among Black people. Dis/misinformation can fuel vaccine hesitancy and threaten the goal of herd immunity. Knowledge of the impact and implications of COVID-19 online dis/misinformation is necessary to inform public health interventions in Black communities.