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Conspiracy and debunking narratives about COVID-19 origination on Chinese social media: How it started and who is to blame

Authors :
Anfan Chen
Cuihua Shen
Jingbo Meng
Jingwen Zhang
Kaiping Chen
Source :
Web of Science
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

This paper studies conspiracy and debunking narratives about COVID-19 origination on a major Chinese social media platform, Weibo, from January to April 2020. Popular conspiracies about COVID-19 on Weibo, including that the virus is human-synthesized or a bioweapon, differ substantially from those in the US. They attribute more responsibility to the US than to China, especially following Sino-US confrontations. Compared to conspiracy posts, debunking posts are associated with lower user participation but higher mobilization. Debunking narratives can be more engaging when they come from women and influencers and cite scientists. Our findings suggest that conspiracy narratives can carry highly cultural and political orientations. Correction efforts should consider political motives and identify important stakeholders to reconstruct international dialogues toward intercultural understanding.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Web of Science
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....604a22059c977ac860896b44a1db8559