COVID-19 Pandemic and Diffusion of Fake News through Social Media in the Arab World

Social media platforms are among the most widely used sources of information in the world. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the public needs access to timely and reliable information about the disease symptoms and their prevention. Thus, this study aims to determine the respondents’ perception of their trust level in the information published on social networking sites regarding the coronavirus. In addition, it aims to identify the most popular social media sites spreading rumors related to coronavirus. Further, it explores the respondents’ interaction with news and information relating to coronavirus published on social media. A non-probability sampling technique was used. The questionnaire was administered to respondents through the internet; posted on social media accounts, internet newsgroups, discussion groups, and emails sent to colleagues and friends to respond to the questionnaire. A total of 1274 self-selected cases from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates were investigated. This study revealed that respondents have more confidence in the information published by Twitter, Followed by Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook. However, they have less confidence in the information published by Tik Tok or other networks. Regarding spreading rumors, the study found that the most popular social networking platform spreading rumors related to coronavirus is WhatsApp. Further, the study found that respondents are interactive with all news and information of coronavirus published on social media.