IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jftint/v14y2022i12p350-d982171.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-Related Misinformation Migration to BitChute and Odysee

Author

Listed:
  • Olga Papadopoulou

    (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas—CERTH, Information Technologies Institute—ITI, 6th km Harilaou-Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Evangelia Kartsounidou

    (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas—CERTH, Information Technologies Institute—ITI, 6th km Harilaou-Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Symeon Papadopoulos

    (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas—CERTH, Information Technologies Institute—ITI, 6th km Harilaou-Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece)

Abstract

The overwhelming amount of information and misinformation on social media platforms has created a new role that these platforms are inclined to take on, that of the Internet custodian. Mainstream platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are under tremendous public and political pressure to combat disinformation and remove harmful content. Meanwhile, smaller platforms, such as BitChute and Odysee, have emerged and provide fertile ground for disinformation as a result of their low content-moderation policy. In this study, we analyze the phenomenon of removed content migration from YouTube to BitChute and Odysee. In particular, starting from a list of COVID-related videos removed from YouTube due to violating its misinformation policy, we find that ∼15% (1114 videos) of them migrated to the two low content-moderation platforms under study. This amounts to 4096 videos on BitChute and 1810 on Odysee. We present an analysis of this video dataset, revealing characteristics of misinformation dissemination similar to those on YouTube and other mainstream social media platforms. The BitChute–Odysee COVID-related dataset is publicly available for research purposes on misinformation analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga Papadopoulou & Evangelia Kartsounidou & Symeon Papadopoulos, 2022. "COVID-Related Misinformation Migration to BitChute and Odysee," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:350-:d:982171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/14/12/350/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/14/12/350/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seymour, B. & Getman, R. & Saraf, A. & Zhang, L.H. & Kalenderian, E., 2015. "When advocacy obscures accuracy online: Digital pandemics of public health misinformation through an antifluoride case study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(3), pages 517-523.
    2. Alessandro Bessi & Mauro Coletto & George Alexandru Davidescu & Antonio Scala & Guido Caldarelli & Walter Quattrociocchi, 2015. "Science vs Conspiracy: Collective Narratives in the Age of Misinformation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Rafaela Rosário & Maria R. O. Martins & Cláudia Augusto & Maria José Silva & Silvana Martins & Ana Duarte & Inês Fronteira & Neida Ramos & Orkan Okan & Kevin Dadaczynski, 2020. "Associations between COVID-19-Related Digital Health Literacy and Online Information-Seeking Behavior among Portuguese University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Bilal Naeem & Aymen Khan & Mirza Omer Beg & Hasan Mujtaba, 2020. "A deep learning framework for clickbait detection on social area network using natural language cues," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 231-243, April.
    5. Seymour, B. & Getman, R. & Saraf, A. & Zhang, L.H. & Kalenderian, E., 2015. "Erratum: When advocacy obscures accuracy online: Digital pandemics of public health misinformation through an antifluoride case study (American Journal of Public Health (2015) 105:3 (517-523))," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(5), pages 1-7.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. MacFarlane, Douglas & Hurlstone, Mark J. & Ecker, Ullrich K.H., 2020. "Protecting consumers from fraudulent health claims: A taxonomy of psychological drivers, interventions, barriers, and treatments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    2. Smaldone, Francesco & Ippolito, Adelaide & Ruberto, Margherita, 2020. "The shadows know me: Exploring the dark side of social media in the healthcare field," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 19-32.
    3. Casey A. Klofstad & Joseph E. Uscinski & Jennifer M. Connolly & Jonathan P. West, 2019. "What drives people to believe in Zika conspiracy theories?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Carlos Carrasco-Farré, 2022. "The fingerprints of misinformation: how deceptive content differs from reliable sources in terms of cognitive effort and appeal to emotions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Germano, Fabrizio & Sobbrio, Francesco, 2020. "Opinion dynamics via search engines (and other algorithmic gatekeepers)," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    6. Pilar Bas-Sarmiento & María José Lamas-Toranzo & Martina Fernández-Gutiérrez & Miriam Poza-Méndez, 2022. "Health Literacy, Misinformation, Self-Perceived Risk and Fear, and Preventive Measures Related to COVID-19 in Spanish University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-18, November.
    7. Mitja Vrdelja & Sanja Vrbovšek & Vito Klopčič & Kevin Dadaczynski & Orkan Okan, 2021. "Facing the Growing COVID-19 Infodemic: Digital Health Literacy and Information-Seeking Behaviour of University Students in Slovenia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-16, August.
    8. Tobias Blanke & Tommaso Venturini, 2022. "A network view on reliability: using machine learning to understand how we assess news websites," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 69-88, May.
    9. Antonio Parravano & Ascensión Andina-Díaz & Miguel A Meléndez-Jiménez, 2016. "Bounded Confidence under Preferential Flip: A Coupled Dynamics of Structural Balance and Opinions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, October.
    10. Rafaela Rosário & Inês Fronteira & Maria R. O. Martins & Cláudia Augusto & Maria José Silva & Melanie Messer & Silvana Martins & Ana Duarte & Neida Ramos & Katharina Rathmann & Orkan Okan & Kevin Dada, 2022. "Infodemic Preparedness and COVID-19: Searching about Public Health and Social Measures Is Associated with Digital Health Literacy in University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-9, September.
    11. Sheng-Chih Chen & Le Duc Huy & Cheng-Yu Lin & Chih-Feng Lai & Nhi Thi Hong Nguyen & Nhi Y. Hoang & Thao T. P. Nguyen & Loan T. Dang & Nguyen L. T. Truong & Tan N. Phan & Tuyen Van Duong, 2022. "Association of Digital Health Literacy with Future Anxiety as Mediated by Information Satisfaction and Fear of COVID-19: A Pathway Analysis among Taiwanese Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-16, November.
    12. Juan Miguel Carrascosa & Ruben Cuevas & Roberto Gonzalez & Arturo Azcorra & David Garcia, 2015. "Quantifying the Economic and Cultural Biases of Social Media through Trending Topics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
    13. Vivek K. Singh & Isha Ghosh & Darshan Sonagara, 2021. "Detecting fake news stories via multimodal analysis," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(1), pages 3-17, January.
    14. Chiara Lorini & Veronica Velasco & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi & Kevin Dadaczynski & Orkan Okan & Patrizio Zanobini & Luca P. Vecchio, 2022. "Validation of the COVID-19 Digital Health Literacy Instrument in the Italian Language: A Cross-Sectional Study of Italian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-17, May.
    15. Kateryna Wowk & Larry McKinney & Frank Muller-Karger & Russell Moll & Susan Avery & Elva Escobar-Briones & David Yoskowitz & Richard McLaughlin, 2017. "Evolving academic culture to meet societal needs," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, December.
    16. Bessi, Alessandro, 2017. "On the statistical properties of viral misinformation in online social media," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 469(C), pages 459-470.
    17. Salman Bin Naeem & Maged N. Kamel Boulos, 2021. "COVID-19 Misinformation Online and Health Literacy: A Brief Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-12, July.
    18. Pérez-Martínez, H. & Bauzá Mingueza, F. & Soriano-Paños, D. & Gómez-Gardeñes, J. & Floría, L.M., 2023. "Polarized opinion states in static networks driven by limited information horizons," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    19. Jiexun Li & Xiaohui Chang, 2023. "Combating Misinformation by Sharing the Truth: a Study on the Spread of Fact-Checks on Social Media," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1479-1493, August.
    20. Elizabeth Titilayo Aduloju, Ph.D, 2021. "Media and Information Literacy: A Critical Response to the Challenge of ‘Infodemic’ in the Covid-19 Pandemic Era in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(07), pages 15-24, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jftint:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:350-:d:982171. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.