Content and Dynamics of Websites Shared Over Vaccine-Related Tweets in COVID-19 Conversations: Computational Analysis

Background: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent infodemic increased concerns about Twitter's role in advancing antivaccination messages, even before a vaccine became available to the public. New computational methods allow for analysis of cross-platform use by tracking links to websites shared over Twitter, which, in turn, can uncover some of the content and dynamics of information sources and agenda-setting processes. Such understanding can advance theory and efforts to reduce misinformation. Objective: Informed by agenda-setting theory, this study aimed to identify the content and temporal patterns of websites shared in vaccine-related tweets posted to COVID-19 conversations on Twitter between February and June 2020. Methods: We used triangulation of data analysis methods. Data mining consisted of the screening of around 5 million tweets posted to COVID-19 conversations to identify tweets that related to vaccination and including links to websites shared within these tweets. We further analyzed the content the 20 most-shared external websites using a mixed methods approach. Results: Of 841,896 vaccination-related tweets identified, 185,994 (22.1%) contained links to specific websites. A wide range of websites were shared, with the 20 most-tweeted websites constituting 14.5% (27,060/185,994) of the shared websites and typically being shared for only 2 to 3 days. Traditional media constituted the majority of these 20 websites, along with other social media and governmental sources. We identified markers of inauthentic propagation for some of these links. Conclusions: The topic of vaccination was prevalent in tweets about COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Sharing websites was a common communication strategy, and its bursty pattern and inauthentic propagation strategies pose challenges for health promotion efforts. Future studies should consider cross-platform use in dissemination of health information and in counteracting misinformation.

Automated summary

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent infodemic has raised concerns about Twitter's role in spreading antivaccination messages even before the vaccine was available to the public. Computational methods allow for cross-platform analysis of information sources and agenda-setting processes based on shared website links on Twitter. The study identified a significant presence of vaccination topics in early COVID-19 tweets, with website sharing as a common communication strategy presenting challenges for health promotion efforts. Future studies should explore cross-platform dissemination of health information and combating misinformation.