Verification in the covid-19 infodemic. Newtral’s case study

Abstract

Introduction: This work describes Newtral's verification procedures in the infodemic that occurred during the Covid-19 crisis and the characteristics of the verified contents. Methodology: 205 verified contents published between January 25 and May 25, 2020, are analyzed; verification processes are followed up and an unstructured personal interview with Newtral´s director of content is conducted. Results: The number of verified contents increased considerably as of March 10, four days before the state of alarm was ordered. Regarding verification methods, sources were consulted in 90.5% of cases, while technological tools were only used in 9.5%. The most widespread were texts on social media, detecting 66% of cases in more than one. It was impossible to detect the origin in 91.7% of the verified contents. Discussion and conclusions: Consulting various sources is the most widely used verification method, well ahead of tools such as search engines or geolocation apps. Consultations to official and supplanted sources prevailed. The most common were manufactured and impostor contents distributed through social media and WhatsApp.