Abstract

The kick-off of vaccination campaigns in Europe, starting in late December 2020, has been followed by the online spread of controversies and conspiracies surrounding vaccine validity and efficacy. We study Twitter discussions in three major European languages (Italian, German, and French) during the vaccination campaign. Moving beyond content analysis to explore the structural aspects of online discussions, our investigation includes an analysis of polarization and the potential formation of echo chambers, revealing nuanced behavioral and topical differences in user interactions across the analyzed countries. Notably, we identify strong anti- and pro-vaccine factions exhibiting heterogeneous temporal polarization patterns in different countries. Through a detailed examination of news-sharing sources, we uncover the widespread use of other media platforms like Telegram and YouTube for disseminating low …

Date

February 6, 2024

Authors

Gianluca Nogara, Francesco Pierri, Stefano Cresci, Luca Luceri, Silvia Giordano

Journal

Proceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference