Developing a socio-computational approach to examine toxicity propagation and regulation in COVID-19 discourse on YouTube.

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to ravage the world at an unprecedented rate, formal recommendations from medical experts are becoming muffled by the avalanche of toxic content posted on social media platforms. This high level of toxic content prevents the dissemination of important and time-sensitive information and jeopardizes the sense of community that online social networks (OSNs) seek to cultivate. In this article, we present techniques to analyze toxic content and actors that propagated it on YouTube during the initial months after COVID-19 information was made public.

A public online resource to track COVID-19 misinfodemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the rise of many unique online narratives through social media and other sources. They can range from theories about the origin of the virus, to misinformation regarding personal health measures. Such narratives have a direct impact on public health and safety.