Ridiculing the “tinfoil hats”: Citizen responses to COVID-19 misinformation in the Danish facemask debate on Twitter

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Full Text

    Final published version, 887 KB, PDF document

We study how citizens engage with misinformation on Twitter in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that misinformation regarding facemasks is not corrected through counterarguments or fact-checking. Instead, many tweets rejecting misinformation use humor to mock
misinformation spreaders, whom they pejoratively label wearers of “tinfoil hats.” Tweets rejecting misinformation project a superior social position and leave the concerns of misinformation spreaders unaddressed. Our study highlights the role of status in people’s engagement with online misinformation.
Original languageEnglish
JournalHarvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
Volume3
Issue number2
Number of pages23
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Mar 2022

Number of downloads are based on statistics from Google Scholar and www.ku.dk


No data available

ID: 305399215