False Information about COVID-19 Vaccination in Turkey: Analysis of Twitter Posts

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world socially, culturally, economically, and politically. Struggling with the COVID-19 virus has become the focal point of the countries. As many studies are being conducted, and new treatment methods are being discussed, the vaccination process continues worldwide. According to the current statistics, 63% of the world population has been already fully vaccinated. During this period, along with the true information, many false information facts and materials proliferated which lead to the reluctance of individuals to be vaccinated. As a result of it, the virus exposes to mutation and more serious cases emerge worldwide. In this context, this study aims to analyze false information Tweets regarding vaccination in Turkey. As Turkey is one of the top countries with the highest cases and the medium-scaled (68%) level of vaccination worldwide, the study findings will help to understand the main motives of anti-vaccination by focusing on false facts. A two-step methodology was followed in the research. First, data collection was done through Twitter API and then, the analysis was conducted using the Orange Data Mining Program and content analysis. Propaganda is one of the interesting results as the most-shared false information type. On the other hand, while “the denial of the epidemic” was the most-focused theme, “stop insisting on PCR” and “pandemic is over” were the most-emphasized discourses in the Tweets.