"Get The Facts About COVID-19" Trolls

About

"Get the Facts About COVID-19" Trolls refers to posts that intentionally trigger the Twitter fact-checking algorithm to add "Get the Facts About COVID-19" under the post, despite the post having nothing to do with the coronavirus.

Origin

On May 11th, 2020, Twitter^[1] announced its intent to tackle misinformation regarding the coronavirus by adding a hyperlink reading "Get the Facts About COVID-19" under tweets linking 5G and the coronavirus. The hyperlink will then bring readers to a Twitter page featuring tweets and articles from journalists and medical professionals disproving the connection between 5G and the coronavirus.^[2]

Spread

In early June of 2020, some Twitter users realized they could force Twitter to add the hyperlink to their tweets by including the words "5G" and "corona" in their tweets, even if they had nothing to do with the 5G conspiracy theory of the coronavirus. On June 7th, Twitter user @Plinz^[3] took advantage of this by using the words "5G" and "corona" in a tweet about the sun, gaining over 250 retweets and 1,000 likes (shown below, left). User @PrivatizeEdu^[4] tweeted, "I can’t wait to get a 5G. Corona is probably my favorite beer," gaining over 120 retweets and 700 likes (shown below, right).

Others used memes about the feature. For example, user @bee_of_the_bird^[5] used the Hmm Today I Will meme to troll the algorithm, gaining over 90 retweets and 280 likes (shown below, left). User @qorg11^[6] tweeted a Cereal Guy meme, gaining over 15 retweets and likes (shown below, right). The trolls were covered by the Daily Dot.^[7]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References