Conspiracy Theories Dissemination on SNS Vkontakte: COVID-19 Case. / Платонов, Константин Аркадьевич; Светлов, Кирилл Владимирович.
Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia - 7th International Conference, EGOSE 2020, Proceedings. ed. / Andrei Chugunov; Igor Khodachek; Yuri Misnikov; Dmitrii Trutnev. Vol. 1349 Communications in Computer and Information Science. ed. Springer Nature, 2020. p. 322-335 (Communications in Computer and Information Science; Vol. 1349).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer-review
}
TY - GEN
T1 - Conspiracy Theories Dissemination on SNS Vkontakte: COVID-19 Case
AU - Платонов, Константин Аркадьевич
AU - Светлов, Кирилл Владимирович
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - COVID-19 crisis has caused the growth of popularity of conspiracy theories disseminated by opinion leaders as well as anonymous actors via social media. This trend poses a danger because supporters of fake agendas contribute to spreading disinformation, deny the real risks, break the rules, and even undertake some unlawful actions. Since March 2020 Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) initiated blocking fake news about coronavirus on social media but some of them remained available to the public. In our study, we considered the agenda on conspiracy theories presented in the posts on the most popular Russian SNS VKontakte. The initial database contained 2342689 posts published between March 30 and May 12, 2020. After the interpretation of the results of topic modeling, we found that conspiracy-related posts comprised a small share among all popular COVID-related posts on VKontakte. Content analysis showed that only about a half of the posts with information on conspiracy theories about COVID-19 was devoted to the promotion of conspiracy arguments but the sufficient share related to the debate on alternative versions or criticism. It was revealed that the most popular theory presented in posts on Vkontakte can be described as “anti-vax/politicized” version of “the chipping theory” which found the link between coronavirus and “planned chipping” of population via “mass vaccination”. The structure of the agenda on COVID-related conspiracy theories is described. The key features of the analyzed agenda on conspiracy theories and practical applications are discussed.
AB - COVID-19 crisis has caused the growth of popularity of conspiracy theories disseminated by opinion leaders as well as anonymous actors via social media. This trend poses a danger because supporters of fake agendas contribute to spreading disinformation, deny the real risks, break the rules, and even undertake some unlawful actions. Since March 2020 Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) initiated blocking fake news about coronavirus on social media but some of them remained available to the public. In our study, we considered the agenda on conspiracy theories presented in the posts on the most popular Russian SNS VKontakte. The initial database contained 2342689 posts published between March 30 and May 12, 2020. After the interpretation of the results of topic modeling, we found that conspiracy-related posts comprised a small share among all popular COVID-related posts on VKontakte. Content analysis showed that only about a half of the posts with information on conspiracy theories about COVID-19 was devoted to the promotion of conspiracy arguments but the sufficient share related to the debate on alternative versions or criticism. It was revealed that the most popular theory presented in posts on Vkontakte can be described as “anti-vax/politicized” version of “the chipping theory” which found the link between coronavirus and “planned chipping” of population via “mass vaccination”. The structure of the agenda on COVID-related conspiracy theories is described. The key features of the analyzed agenda on conspiracy theories and practical applications are discussed.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Conspiracy theories
KW - Denialism
KW - Russia
KW - Social media
KW - Vkontakte
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101522443&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/21f31557-a5fc-3d1c-8b1f-7bbd9a97592f/
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-67238-6_23
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-67238-6_23
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 978-3-030-67237-9
VL - 1349
T3 - Communications in Computer and Information Science
SP - 322
EP - 335
BT - Electronic Governance and Open Society
A2 - Chugunov, Andrei
A2 - Khodachek, Igor
A2 - Misnikov, Yuri
A2 - Trutnev, Dmitrii
PB - Springer Nature
T2 - 7th Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia, EGOSE 2020
Y2 - 18 November 2020 through 19 November 2020
ER -
ID: 74982172