ReOpen demands as public health threat: a sociotechnical framework for understanding the stickiness of misinformation

Abstract

In the absence of a national, coordinated, response to COVID-19, state and local representatives had to create and enforce individualized plans to protect their constituents. Alongside the challenge of trying to curb the virus, public health officials also had to contend with the spread of false information. This problematic content often contradicted safeguards, like masks, while promoting unverified and potentially lethal treatments. One of the most active groups denying the threat of COVID is The Reopen the States Movement. By combining qualitative content analysis with ethnographic observations of public ReOpen groups on Facebook, this paper provides a better understanding of the central narratives circulating among ReOpen members and the information they relied on to support their arguments. Grounded in notions of individualism and self-inquiry, members sought to reinterpret datasets to downplay the threat of COVID and suggest public safety workarounds. When the platform tried to flag problematic content, lack of institutional trust had members doubting the validity of the fact-checkers, highlight the tight connection between misinformation and epistemology.

Libraries Combating Disinformation: From the Front Line to the Long Game

“…This erosion of trust costs the United States between $50 and $300 million daily (Bruns et al 2021), contributes to an ongoing public health crisis (Jennings et al 2021), and dilutes democratic integrity (Swann 2022). A range of scholars have demonstrated how propagandists make use of information systems to spread problematic content (Benkler, Farris, and Roberts 2018;Chen et al 2021;Nisbet, Mortenson, and Li 2021;Ognyanova et al 2020;Tripodi 2021). In this study, we take up the question of how libraries and librarians could become a central part of the solution.…”

A Systematic Literature Review on Cyber Threat Intelligence for Organizational Cybersecurity Resilience

“…Tripodi [ 55 ] utilized a sociotechnical framework to analyze the sociopolitical and technological factors contributing to misinformation’s spread and persistence. They argue that the continuation of this misinformation is due to a complex interplay of social and technological factors, including political polarization, the use of social media platforms to spread misinformation, and the amplification of misinformation by influential individuals and organizations.…”

“…The study also highlights the potential public health consequences of the persistence of this misinformation, including increased transmission of viruses and decreased compliance with public health guidelines. The authors concluded that addressing this issue will require a multifaceted approach that considers the social and technological factors contributing to the spread of misinformation [ 55 ].…”

Sheriffs, right‐wing extremism, and the limits of U.S. federalism during a crisis

“…As COVID policies spurred RWE activism in the general public (Tripodi 2021), lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates prompted fierce opposition from RWE organizations, including the CSPOA (Chammah 2020). Sheriffs vocally resisted mask mandates, articulating RWE‐consistent views like anti‐federalism with Sheriff Bieber (Shawano County, Wisconsin), “Health Code orders should never encroach the Constitutional rights of the American people.…”