Spreading (Dis)Trust: Covid-19 Misinformation and Government Intervention in Italy

Abstract

The commentary focuses on the spread of Covid-19 misinformation in Italy, highlighting the dynamics that have impacted on its pandemic communication. Italy has recently been affected by a progressive erosion of trust in public institutions and a general state of information crisis regarding matters of health and science. In this context, the politicization of health issues and a growing use of social media to confront the Coronavirus “infodemic” have led the Italian Ministry of Health to play a strategic role in using its official Facebook page to mitigate the spread of misinformation and to offer updates to online publics. Despite this prompt intervention, which increased the visibility and reliability of public health communication, coordinated efforts involving different institutions, media and digital platform companies still seem necessary to reduce the impact of misinformation, as using a multichannel strategy helps avoid increasing social and technological disparities at a time of crisis.

The use of Twitter by state leaders and its impact on the public during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The finding on the growth of followers offers some contrast to the literature on spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic (Gruzd and Mai, 2020;Lovari, 2020;P erez-Dasilva et al, 2020;Pulido et al, 2020;Rodríguez et al, 2020;Vraga et al, 2020). It is indeed true that misinformation can be spread via social media.…”

“…Numerous studies have been published that examined spreading misinformation on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic (Gruzd and Mai, 2020;Lovari, 2020;P erez-Dasilva et al, 2020;Pulido et al, 2020;Rodríguez et al, 2020;Vraga et al, 2020). For example, Pulido et al (2020) find that false information about the pandemic is tweeted more but retweeted less than science-based tweets.…”

Identity change, uncertainty and mistrust in relation to fear and risk of COVID-19

“…Whether this assuaged fear probably depended on the prior beliefs of the audience. COVID-19 misinformation was rife (Lovari 2020) and conspiracy theories abounded (Gruzd and Mai 2020). Thus, the impact of trust in science upon fear levels may have been muted or, indeed, polarised.…”

How COVID-19 Changed the Information Needs of Italian Citizens

“…The main, but not exclusive source of this fake news was social media. In order to answer this situation, the Italian Ministry of Health was forced to change its communication strategies, playing a strategic role in using its official Facebook page to mitigate the spread of misinformation and to offer updates to the online public [ 12 ]. Overall, the authorities’ response to fake news was effective.…”