YouTube as a source of information on COVID-19: a pandemic of misinformation?
Open accessAbstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is this century’s largest public health emergency and its successful management relies on the effective dissemination of factual information. As a social media platform with billions of daily views, YouTube has tremendous potential to both support and hinder public health efforts. However, the usefulness and accuracy of most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 have not been investigated. Methods: A YouTube search was performed on 21 March 2020 using keywords ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’, and the top 75 viewed videos from each search were analysed. Videos that were duplicates, non-English, non-audio and non-visual, exceeding 1 hour in duration, live and unrelated to COVID-19 were excluded. Two reviewers coded the source, content and characteristics of included videos. The primary outcome was usability and reliability of videos, analysed using the novel COVID-19 Specific Score (CSS), modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) and modified JAMA (mJAMA) scores. Results: Of 150 videos screened, 69 (46%) were included, totalling 257 804 146 views. Nineteen (27.5%) videos contained non-factual information, totalling 62 042 609 views. Government and professional videos contained only factual information and had higher CSS than consumer videos (mean difference (MD) 2.21, 95% CI 0.10 to 4.32, p=0.037); mDISCERN scores than consumer videos (MD 2.46, 95% CI 0.50 to 4.42, p=0.008), internet news videos (MD 2.20, 95% CI 0.19 to 4.21, p=0.027) and entertainment news videos (MD 2.57, 95% CI 0.66 to 4.49, p=0.004); and mJAMA scores than entertainment news videos (MD 1.21, 95% CI 0.07 to 2.36, p=0.033) and consumer videos (MD 1.27, 95% CI 0.10 to 2.44, p=0.028). However, they only accounted for 11% of videos and 10% of views. Conclusion: Over one-quarter of the most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 contained misleading information, reaching millions of viewers worldwide. As the current COVID-19 pandemic worsens, public health agencies must better use YouTube to deliver timely and accurate information and to minimise the spread of misinformation. This may play a significant role in successfully managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
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How to reduce misinformation susceptibility in real-world environments where misinformation is regularly consumed remains an open question.
“how to reduce misinformation susceptibility in real-world environments where misinformation is regularly consumed (such as social media and video sharing platforms) remains an open question (21).”
From Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media (2022) · cites this paper as [21]
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- Authors
- Li, H. O.-Y., Bailey, A., Huynh, D., & Chan, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Ottawa (CA)
- Ottawa Hospital (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Heidi Oi-Yee
- Venue
- BMJ Global Health
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2020-05
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- e002604
- ISSN
- 2059-7908 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7228483
- OpenAlex
- W3016317684
- Cited by
- 781
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 68 · 2024: 83 · 2023: 148 · 2022: 192 · 2021: 185 · 2020: 55
- FWCI
- 194.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMJ Global Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube, misinformation, health information quality, video reliability, DISCERN, JAMA score, consumer health information, government health communication, social media
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Public Health, Video Recording, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Infections, Internet, Information Dissemination, Consumer Health Information, Social Media
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