The containment of the COVID-19 virus ultimately relies on individual actions, and people need access to reliable factual information to make good decisions. In the spring of 2020, just as the pandemic was taking hold, the Reboot Foundation conducted a survey of the public on its knowledge of COVID-19 as well as its social media use. Reboot also examined social media to track individual posts related to the virus.

The subsequent report documented troubling trends in how misinformation on the virus spread online and, specifically, the deleterious role social media played in the making the pandemic worse.

Key Findings

• Almost a third of the public believed in COVID-19 myths
• Social media use drove misinformation around COVID-19