The anatomy of conspiratorial infodemic: exploring super-spreaders in COVID-19 discourse on Twitter
摘要
Social media platforms are essential in informing the public during crises, yet unregulated content sharing also exacerbates the infodemic and fosters conspiracy theories. This study analyzes tweets collected over a nine-month period in 2020, focusing on the role of Bill Gates in the COVID-19 pandemic. By employing a mixed-methods approach, the study seeks to explore who the super-spreaders are, what they are posting, and whether they exhibit bot-like behavior. Specifically, this study identifies discussion topics using computational techniques and pinpoints hyperactive accounts involved in the distribution of conspiracy narratives. The study reviewed 260 super-spreaders who posted more than 50 tweets, totaling 29,757 tweets, which account for 9.5% of the total tweets over the nine-month period. Further analysis revealed that over 65% of these accounts had either been suspended by Twitter or no longer existed. At the content level, these super-spreaders posted highly emotional content, while longtail users shared content related to health risks concerning their personal welfare. Additional analysis revealed that many of these super-spreaders exhibited bot-like behaviors, displaying strong patterns of conspiratorial and ephemeral characteristics. This study sheds light on the role of super-spreaders in amplifying conspiracy theories during crises. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.