COVID-19 misinformation and the 2020 U.S. presidential election

• Main Authors: Emily Chen, Herbert Chang, Ashwin Rao, Kristina Lerman, Geoffrey Cowan, Emilio Ferrara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Harvard Kennedy School 2021-03-01
• Series: Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
• Subjects: covid-10; elections; public health; twitter
• Online Access: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/covid-19-misinformation-and-the-2020-u-s-presidential-election/
• ISSN: 2766-1652

Voting is the defining act for a democracy. However, voting is only meaningful if public deliberation is grounded in veritable and equitable information. This essay investigates the politicization of public health practices during the Democratic primaries in the context of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, using a dataset of more than 67 million tweets. We find the public sphere on Twitter is politically heterogeneous and the majority—liberal and conservative alike—advocates for wearing masks and vote-by-mail. However, a small, but dense group of conservative users push anti-mask and voter fraud narratives.