Is Twitter Spreading False Information?
First let me be clear, I know people have died from the Swine Flu. I am in no way taking that lightly, this is a serious issue. Nor am I an expert in the subject of the Swine Flu or anything similar to it.
That being said I was doing some beta testing today on a search application for a friend and decided to use the keywords “Swine Flu”. I was blown away by what I found. Let me share some of the observations I made. I will do it in list form, as people like lists:
-Its one of the top trending topics on Twitter
-By my estimate the term it is being used an average of 50 times ever 5- 10 seconds on Twitter
-Twitter has more updated, current and correct information then any news source…. or does it?
According to posts I have read, the Swine Flu is in:
Oregon
Florida
Washington
North Carolina
and almost everywhere
(I was going to repost these tweets, but decided sharing them would be passing on possible incorrect information)
How accurate is the information we are getting, sharing and posting on Twitter? Better yet how about any social networking site?
Now for the states I mentioned there was no link back to a major news source, like CNN, ABC, Fox, etc. I did check a pretty cool map thing on USA Today that did not show any cases of the flu there as of this post be written. On top of that these posts were being retweeted. A retweet is when someone passes on your post, to share with others. Is Twitter, are we, passing on incorrect information and causing people to be misinformed? Is Twitter causing things like the swine flu to become bigger then they are? Are we using social networking sites to increase panic, hype and worry where there is no need?
I know Im getting deep and ask more questions then I have answers to.
What are your thoughts? Am I way off and should just chill out?
For what its worth, I do follow the CDC Emergency Twitter, which I believe to be official. It gives links to sites and information that comes from the CDC official webpage.
UPDATE April 26 10:30ish : Before I put this post up on Tuesday afternoon, CNN posted:
Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter
Seems someone else was thinking about the same things as myself.
UPDATE: April 26 12:33: From Todd Scott Macissac Florida Hospital Denies Swine Flu Case Has Been Confirmed hmmm does this mean the person who posted the tweet had inside info?
Information and misinformation spread on Twitter in pretty much the same proportion as in the rest of the world, except faster.
But does it being on Twitter give the false impression its true?
Good point! Reminds me of a tweet where someone healthy was scared because half of the tweets were about swine flu.
I completely agree with you on following, tweeting and retweeting information from authentic sources.
How are you defining "authentic sources'?
Great perspective, Dave. I did the math on this: As of yesterday afternoon, there were 73 reported cases of swine flu worldwide, and about 6 billion people, give or take a few. That factors out to about one case of swine flu for every 100 million people, by my math.
It's not you who should chill out — it's the Twitter nervous nellies who think the sky is falling.
Thanks for the comment Scott
It's funny how things like this can get blown all out of proportion. It's herd mentality at it's finest.
[BEGIN SHAMELESS PLUG] I recently put up a post on my own blog at http://www.bbsi.com/wp/ that contained links to a couple of sites that are mapping the spread of the swine flu and they have been by far the most read posts since the Conficker virus (another case of herd mentality). [END SHAMELESS PLUG]
Dave
you're not alone – i was just noting on that the official death toll in Mexico is 12 – not the 200+ everyone thinks it is (they think 200 ppl have swine flu). So that's a worldwide deathtoll of 13 with the one baby in the USA.
On the same page was a link to "swine flu causing panic" and i thought, yeah, i wonder why. Could it be because the media has done its level best to whip up hysteria? Especially with this piece of scum journalism http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/02/255… which headlines TWO AUSTRALIANS WITH SWINE FLU – then says in the body of the article that they're in London, England.
nice take on that. Thanks for the link too
Like any open channel information source, one has to look at the source of information for trust, validity, and expertise in order to decide if the information is "valid".
Even trusted sources get the info wrong (remember "Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report: "It Is Not True"" ?).
So the title of this post "Is Twitter Spreading False Information?" should really be "Yes, false information is spread on Twitter! Learn more":)
caveat emptor => lector emptor
Well said and excellent observation!
[...] Newsmediachatter.com posted a blog entry on the false information being spread about the swine flu. If you search #swineflu, you’d find the flu everywhere with more deaths accounted for than reported by the traditional media. Someone trying to get their 5 minutes of fame or is there something mainstream media isn’t telling us that we can only find out through Twitter? With the Iran election, the world sees a different view of Tehran than what the state media provides. A partial recount done by the government cites the election results are valid. Of course it would be, ballot stuffing or the lack of an investigation would yield the same results. [...]