Toxicity on Social Media During the 2022 Mpox Public Health Emergency
Author Information
Author(s): Taiane de Azevedo Cardoso, Michael Haupt, Aksara Regmi, Lizhou Fan, Lingyao Li, Libby Hemphill
Primary Institution: University of Michigan
Hypothesis
What are the toxic tweets about and how do they change through time?
Conclusion
The study reveals that toxic online discourse during the 2022 mpox outbreak was characterized by negativity towards disease, health policy, and marginalized communities, highlighting the need for effective public health communication.
Supporting Evidence
- 5 high-level categories of toxic discourse were identified: disease, health policy, homophobia, politics, and racism.
- Retweets of toxic content were widespread, while influential users rarely countered this toxicity.
- The study provides insights that can inform strategies to mitigate toxicity in future public health crises.
Takeaway
People on Twitter said a lot of mean things about the mpox outbreak, which made it hard for others to get good information and feel safe.
Methodology
The study analyzed over 1.6 million tweets using topic modeling and social network analysis to understand the dynamics of toxic discourse.
Potential Biases
Algorithmic biases in the models used for analysis could affect the representation of topics and the understanding of toxicity.
Limitations
The study's reliance on the Perspective API for toxicity detection may lead to misclassification of tweets, and the focus on English tweets may overlook non-English perspectives.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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