Vaccination trials on hold: malicious and low credibility content on Twitter during the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine development

Sameera Horawalavithana (), Ravindu Silva (), Nipuna Weerasekara (), N G Kin Wai (), Mohamed Nabeel (), Buddhini Abayaratna (), Charitha Elvitigala (), Primal Wijesekera () and Adriana Iamnitchi ()
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Sameera Horawalavithana: University of South Florida
Ravindu Silva: SCoRe Lab
Nipuna Weerasekara: SCoRe Lab
N G Kin Wai: University of South Florida
Mohamed Nabeel: Qatar Computing Research Institute
Buddhini Abayaratna: SCoRe Lab
Charitha Elvitigala: SCoRe Lab
Primal Wijesekera: University of California, Berkeley
Adriana Iamnitchi: Maastricht University

Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 2023, vol. 29, issue 3, No 4, 448-469

Abstract: Abstract The development of COVID-19 vaccines during the global pandemic that started in 2020 was marked by uncertainty and misinformation reflected also on social media. This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) shared on Twitter around the clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine and their temporary interruption in September 2020. We analyzed URLs cited in Twitter messages before and after the temporary interruption of the vaccine development on September 9, 2020 to investigate the presence of low credibility and malicious information. We show that the halt of the AstraZeneca clinical trials prompted tweets that cast doubt, fear and vaccine opposition. We discovered a strong presence of URLs from low credibility or malicious websites, as classified by independent fact-checking organizations or identified by web hosting infrastructure features. Moreover, we identified what appears to be coordinated operations to artificially promote some of these URLs hosted on malicious websites.

Keywords: AstraZeneca vaccine; Coordinated URL promotion; Misinformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10588-022-09370-3

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