Fake news has negative impacts on society. It can sometimes cause the death of a person. In Joypurhat, Bangladesh, a garment worker has committed suicide because of fake news. At midnight, a passenger on a bus in Bangladesh's Naogaon district believed Corona had affected his mother. However, after testing, his Corona report came back negative. So, this incident has also happened based on fake news. With the internet, social media have become the most acclaimed tool for freedom of speech, democracy, truth, and as a source of infotainment. In this study, the researchers have attempted to find out whether social media is informing or misinforming the public with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting the qualitative method of study. The findings of this study will aid in determining whether social media is disseminating accurate or incorrect information to the public about the COVID-19 outbreak. The findings show that social media generates approximately 100 COVID-19-related fake news stories over the course of 150 days, from March 1 to July 30, 2020. In this research, the results also show that 64.6% of respondents get COVID-19 related information through social media. In this aspect, Facebook plays an important role. About 53.0% of social media users acclaimed that they get COVID-19 related fake information through Facebook. Facebook spreads 63.0% of fake news, and it is the quickest way to spread any fake news in a short period of time. Most of the fake news is a combination of text and video (49.0%). So, social media is a large platform for getting COVID-19 related information. Fake news and rumors are new words related to COVID-19. This study reveals that 87.3% of respondents are familiar with these words, whereas 12.7% were not familiar with them before the COVID-19 era. About 47.6% of respondents never try to verify any rumors or information related to COVID-19. However, there is less research analyzing the circulation of false and evidence-based information during health emergencies. Thus, the present study aims at shedding new light on the type of fake news that circulated on social media around the COVID-19 outbreak in order to analyze how false information was shared.
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