The Infodemic of COVID-19: Viral Influence Competition 

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, so do the disinformation campaigns about the origin of the virus. Zignal’s influence intelligence analysis shows that COVID-19 is morphing into an infodemic of strategic competition.

In this analysis, we leveraged Zignal’s holistic data ingestion, analytics, and visualization capabilities to map and identify how disinformation about COVID-19 has and continues to propagate across a wide range of media platforms.

We also highlight how authoritarian regimes exploit the connectedness of the media ecosystem to displace blame and responsibility, while also attempting to increase internal control over strategic issues. What we see is the emergence of a strategic influence competition that supersedes particular topics.