Impact Analysis and Correlation Study on the Spread of Fake News During Pandemic COVID-19 in Malaysia

Ahmad Qayyim Nordin, Norziana Jamil, Zuhaira Muhammad Zain, Md Nabil Ahmad Zawawi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The issue of fake news spread on social media especially during the pandemic of COVID-19 has become a major threat to various sectors and agencies in Malaysia. It is observed that the new norm that requires Malaysian to work and stay at home during Movement Control Order (MCO) has contributed to the rapid spread of the fake news. In this research, we study the impact of the fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia and how the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country would affect the number of fake news being spread locally. We also conducted a correlation analysis between the number of fake news and the number of COVID-19 cases. Result shows a significant strong positive correlation between the two studied variables. Besides, we built a fake news prediction model using linear regression algorithm to predict the number of fake news based the number of COVID-19 cases. However, the model did not show a good performance. This paper is targeted to assist the government, especially Majlis Keselamatan Negara, during the formulation of action plan and decision making in the effort to hinder the spread of fake news, by implying the constructed formula to predict the number of fake news in a day based on the number of COVID-19 positive cases.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Visual Informatics - 7th International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2021, Proceedings
EditorsHalimah Badioze Zaman, Alan F. Smeaton, Timothy K. Shih, Sergio Velastin, Tada Terutoshi, Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen, Hazleen Aris, Nazrita Ibrahim
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages495-507
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9783030902346
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes
Event7th International Conference on Advances in Visual Informatics, IVIC 2021 - Kajang, Malaysia
Duration: Nov 23 2021Nov 25 2021

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13051 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference7th International Conference on Advances in Visual Informatics, IVIC 2021
Country/TerritoryMalaysia
CityKajang
Period11/23/2111/25/21

Keywords

  • Correlation analysis
  • COVID-19
  • Fake news
  • Impact analysis
  • Linear regression
  • Movement Control Order

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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