Sharing misinformation: Facilitating the spread

Sharing has become a critical factor in understanding the harms of the infodemic because it may facilitate the spread of misinformation about COVID-19. This chapter examines the patterns of sharing of COVID-19 misinformation following exposure in the four cities. The frequency of sharing is found to be significantly related to exposure to COVID-19 misinformation, social network size, beliefs, knowledge of COVID-19, key demographics, and access to digital information. Also, the more often respondents share the misinformation with others on social media, the more people they share with, hence facilitating the spread. Exposure is found to vary by the amount of sharing in a vicious cycle—the more misinformation respondents are exposed to, the more they share; the more they share, the greater their exposure. Cross-societal differences among the four cities exist—respondents in Beijing tend to share COVID-19 misinformation most frequently and with the most people, followed by the respondents in Hong Kong and Singapore. Taipei respondents share misinformation the least often.