A new study examines use of twitter to spread or debunk conspiracy theories

Researchers investigating the use of Twitter to propagate or debunk conspiracy theories related to the 2015-2016 Zika virus outbreak analyzed the content of more than 25,000 Tweets and the characteristics of the social networks used to disseminate them. The analysis showed that Tweets intended to propagate conspiracy theories were spread through a more decentralized network than debunking messages. The findings are reported in an article published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.