Report Shows That Famous People Social Media Are One of Biggest Sources of Misinformation around Coronavirus

Reuters Institute has found that one of the major driving forces of misinformation around the coronavirus is posts by politicians and public figures that see the highest reach compared to content posted by regular people. Even though posts by famous people constitute 20% of all the misinformation claims, they saw 69% of total engagement. Overall,  Reuters analyzed 225 pieces of information.

One of their findings is that the majority of misinformation on social media is ‘reconfigured’. That means that it is basically twisted truth, not just downright lies (59% according to their data). The fabricated type made up 38% of the content.

You can access more detailed data on this topic in the report here.