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. In an effort to inform the general public and with support of the Arkansas Attorney General’s office our team sought to keep track of narratives for research purposes and provide near-real-time public documentation via a website with two main goals. The first is to track every unique narrative as curated by our analysts. This allows individuals to fact-check the information they consume. The second goal is to relay recommendations to the State Attorney General on how to detect such misinformation and avoid fraud and scams seeking to profit from this online fear and chaos. This paper showcases our website as well as some research findings from the data we collected. More broadly, this effort showcases a unique collaboration between scientists and policy makers to stem the flow of misinformation during a major public health crisis.