The Impact of Fake News on Social Media Users During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Health, Political and Religious Conflicts: A Deep Look

In this new era of inter-connectedness, the COVID-19 outbreak has been characterized by a rapid surge of misinformation — or “fake news” — about the disease on social media, exacerbating its negative psychological impacts and hindering public health efforts. By providing easy access to and sharing of information in real time, social media is considered the main channel for the distribution of fake news. In this viewpoint, we try to find the main impacts of fake news related to COVID-19 on social media users and propose strategies for limiting its spread. In this regard, we set out four key objectives: studying and evaluating the impact of fake news on social media audiences; analyzing fake news patterns; and recommending ways to stop its circulation. To achieve these objectives, we follow a review-based research methodology encompassing scholarly articles and reports from sources including JSTOR, Taylor & Francis, MDPI, Google Scholar, and the WHO, covering the period from 2016 onwards. We employ the Uses and Gratification model to identify three key impacts of COVID-19 related misinformation on social media users: (1) an “infodemic” of health-related misinformation; (2) an increase in social media pastime; and (3) an increase in social, political, and religious conflicts. Several actions are proposed to limit the spread of fake news, involving entities such as government and health agencies, as well as social media companies.