English abstract
This study aimed to reports the most common type of information spread on twitter
platform during Corona pandemic from February 24 to July 31, 2020, and the most prominent
procedures and tools implemented by crisis management institutions in dealing with
misleading information on social media platforms, in addition the study also aimed to shade
the light upon challenges associated with combatting misleading information during Covid 19 pandemic in Oman.
The study used mixed method approach, to analyze and link both qualitative and
quantitative data. In phase one, the study implements content analysis tool to obtain data
from the extracted twitter dataset, whereas researcher purposively sampled 12 respondents
from different governmental organization and used interview as a data collection tool in
phase two. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the practices of
these organization.
The study found that that misleading tweet forms 6.5% of the total tweets, which
mainly focused on information and news related to cases of injury, deaths and treatments.
The study also showed decrease in government and private institutions interaction and
participation which as a result facilitate growth of rumors and false news.
The study also reveals number of integrated tools and procedures implemented by
Crisis Management Institutions to limit and control the spread of misinformation, most
notably: Social media application, news services, official accounts, Influencers Twitter
accounts, non-Arabic speakers accounts, guides, and press conferences. In addition to set of
measures which include Information literacy programs, Legal literacy programs, systematic
monitoring and verification of fake accounts, and training programs for specialists and
volunteers.
The study indicated that the absence of detailed information issued by the official
authorities, absence of accurate and full information in the news accounts of individuals,
diversity of social platforms used by public, fake accounts and the impersonation of official
accounts, low information and digital literacy contribute significantly to the spread of
misinformation and delegation of the efforts of the concerned institutions to tackle it.
The study concluded with several recommendations including emphasis on both
legitimate practices as well as non-legitimate practices such as: laws, media and information
literacy, to mitigate the spread of misleading information and improve citizens and residents'
attitudes toward government
