Plandemic Revisited: Product of Planned Disinformation to Amplify COVID-19 'Infodemic'

Front. Public Health, July 14, 2021| https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.649930

Commentary

A 26-minute documentary entitled "During the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic" appears to have been viewed with great enthusiasm on Twitter and other major social media platforms.

The producers of the documentary planned to discredit scientific experts by using a sophisticated disinformation campaign to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories, but they also attempted to maximize the rate at which the documentary spread and to teach the public towards activism in an attempt to reduce positive sentiment towards public health interventions.

This study applied social network analysis methods in combination with formative content analysis of Twitter data to test the effectiveness of Plandemic.

By comparing the community structure and communication patterns of the Twitter network before and after publication, we demonstrated Plandemic and found that the campaign was effective for two reasons.

First, the campaign directed low-reach social media users to share the documentary in large numbers, effectively subverting efforts to establish a decentralized information-sharing network on Twitter and gatekeeping misinformation.

Second, the campaign amplified negative sentiment about vaccination and containment measures among conspiracy theorists, which may have had an indirect impact on the public's willingness to comply with public health measures.

The results demonstrate the need for further research on sophisticated social experiments such as the Plandemic disinformation campaign, and provide important insights for policymakers to combat the spread of health misinformation during public health crises.

In summary, we documented disinformation and used many low-reach users to spread it. The result is an increase in the number of disbelievers and insights that can be troubling to those in the middle.