Tweeting during a disaster? Be wary

Published May 18, 2018 This content is archived.

An article in The Washington Post about a new UB study that showed that during disasters, active Twitter users are likely to spread false news, either by retweeting or “liking” the original post, interviews Jun Zhuang, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate how apt Twitter users are at debunking falsehoods during disasters,” he said. “Unfortunately, the results paint a less than flattering picture.”