Types, sources, and claims of Covid-19 misinformation

Abstract

This report offers an initial systematic description of the global misinformation concerning the novel coronavirus. Through a quantitative content analysis of a sample of claims rated as false by professional fact checkers around the world, it asks three main research questions: what types of misinformation are most common, what are the motivation behind that content, and what main claims are made. To answer the first two questions, the report modifies and employs two existing measures. To answer the third and to classify the claims made, it inductively generates a unique typology through several iterations of coding and discussion. The corpus of misinformation is comprised of a random sample of 15% of the fact checks completed through Monday March 23rd 2020 from a combined population of fact checks from the IFCN (International Fact Checking Network) and Google fact checking network.