Chapter 7: The COVID-19 Infodemic: Algorithmic Gatekeeping, Confirmation Bias, and Social Identity

During the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation and misinformation shared online enflamed segments of society, caused public division, and increased social tension. As principal conduits of communication, social media platforms acted as “super-spreaders” of malignant information. False reports spread more rapidly than valid ones (WHO, 2020); fact-checkers tried to keep up with the torrents of unverified communication and, even after correcting efforts, found that facts were buried beneath layers of error and speculation. In light of this phenomenon, the COVID-19 infodemic offers an opportunity to discern how fact and fiction collide online and to what effect.

This chapter explores the social media infodemic during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying the conceptual bases of social identity, confirmation bias, and algorithmic gatekeeping. In examining the (trans)formation of social identity and the processes of information sharing to bolster it, we will explain how social media and algorithmic journalism tend to push viewers away from seeking factual verification and toward subtle radicalization. We begin by explaining how disinformation communicated through social media created a dysfunctional public sphere that became abundantly clear during the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.