Attention to misleading and contentious tweets in the case of Hurricane Harvey
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Attention to misleading and contentious tweets in the case of Hurricane Harvey So‑Min Cheong1 · Matthew Babcock2 Received: 20 July 2020 / Accepted: 13 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The spread of false and misleading information through online social media is an elevated concern in emergency contexts such as natural disasters, where the on-the ground decisionmaking window is shorter, and the stakes can be particularly high. Misinformation that gets attention and is drawn out longer during and after such disasters potentially puts the affected population at additional risk. This research focuses on popular but ambiguous and contentious narratives transmitted via Twitter during Hurricane Harvey. Two most talked about contentious narratives consisted of (1) government agencies putting undocumented immigrants at risk and (2) decisions about evacuation. They depict the process of debunking, competing narratives, and political ideology that have kept the stories alive. Our findings suggest the following: that government and reporters play important roles in stemming the spread of contentious or false information; ambiguous and contentious narratives remain in the conversation longer, specific debunking works faster and reaches a larger audience than general or confused debunking; and the lack of coordination of messaging online and on the ground as well as among different government agencies may threaten the timely and accurate delivery of disaster responses. Keywords Social Media · Disaster management · Hurricane Harvey · Misinformation
1 Introduction 1.1 Objective The spread of false and misleading stories through online social media is an issue of concern for many organizations and members of the public. There is worry about how misinformation disrupts online activity and misdirects actions and reactions offline in a range * So‑Min Cheong [email protected] Matthew Babcock [email protected] 1
Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
2
Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Natural Hazards
of decisions from personal health choices to larger-scale political activities (Lazer et al. 2018). An area of elevated concern is in emergency contexts such as natural disasters, where the on-the-ground decision-making window is shorter, and the stakes can be particularly high. Any type of misinformation that gets attention and is drawn out longer during and after such disasters potentially puts the affected population at additional risk. Disaster-related notices and conversations on social media platforms such as Twitter can be further complicated by rapid changes in disaster response and the politics of government response. This may be especially true in nations such as the USA where disaster response is primarily a government directed and coordinated enterprise, and in regard to hurricanes, where governments have a recent history of being chastised for mis
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