Rumors on Social Media During Emergencies

Abstract

During and after a disaster, victims and others often take to social media sites to share information about conditions, aid, resources and the like. But well-intentioned users can spread rumors that are later found to be false, as they did following the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake, which hampered rescue operations and confused people. To improve the quality of information on social media, we study methods for integrating information provided by crowds in social media environments. In this paper, we review some results from our research showing that crowdsourced critical-thinking and veracity evaluation can be effective in curbing the spread of false information on social media. These findings suggest that crowds can help triage information in order to support the discovery of relevant information on social media during and after emergencies.