For More Information:
Jeremy Harper, 501-747-3973
COSMOS and Arkansas Partner to Counter Plague of COVID-19 Misinformation
ARA Fellow Dr. Nitin Agarwal Puts Science on the Frontlines
Little Rock, AR, April, 2020 – Anyone monitoring the nation’s daily COVID-19 updates know just how deadly the virus is and how rapidly it spreads. However, another dangerous contagion is infecting communities worldwide right alongside COVID-19, and it’s even more difficult to contain.
“We call it an ‘infodemic’ which is in many ways more dangerous than COVID-19,” explains Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Fellow and Distinguished Professor of Information Science at UA Little Rock. “The cases of misinformation about the virus are rising exponentially from the dark corners of the web.”
Dr. Agarwal is Director of The Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies, or COSMOS. He and his team of cosmographers study social media and online behavior to combat threats to social good, ranging from safeguarding elections to countering terrorism. The work of COSMOS is now being used to put down this current threat of harmful misinformation regarding the pandemic.
The range of misinformation is expansive. “Fake cures. Medical equipment scams. Anti-foreign sentiment. Basically, anything designed to sow division and unravel the fabric of our society,” says Dr. Agarwal. “This environment of high-anxiety makes it easy for us to fall prey to fake news.”
COSMOS is partnering with the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General to develop a website that can help people identify, understand, and even report fake news regarding COVID-19. The technology is supported by the work COSMOS has completed for agencies like the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, DARPA, and the National Science Foundation among many others. Still, the new website requires new methodology to combat the problem at hand.
“We’re working night and day because we really wanted to do something to help Arkansas,” says Dr. Agarwal. “The Arkansas Research Alliance helped put us in touch with the Attorney General, and now we believe this can be a resource used nationally, or even globally.”
Dr. Agarwal also credits the ARA Fellows grant with helping him fund projects dealing with unexpected events like COVID-19.
“We’re working with the Arkansas Attorney General on a volunteer basis,” says Dr. Agarwal. “The ARA funds made that possible.”
The website, cosmos.ualr.edu/covid-19, is an essential tool to countering the spread of misinformation, which too often takes fraudulent advantage the anxiety associated with the virus. “This pandemic has created an unprecedented level of uncertainty and I will not tolerate bad actors seeking to leverage this crisis to fill their pocketbooks,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “The goal with this partnership is to make sure we are quickly identifying fake websites that are spreading misinformation with the purpose of stealing from Arkansans.”
Dr. Agarwal wants to remind people that news spreads fast online – the weirder the faster. “The only way to expose these dark characters on the web is to shine a light on them. Our mission is to shine that light.”
###
About Arkansas Research Alliance
Founded in 2008, Arkansas Research Alliance is dedicated to elevating a fundamental belief: Research Matters. Operating as a public-private partnership, ARA invests in research that stimulates innovation, encourages collaboration, and strengthens economic opportunity.
###
The Takeaways
- COSMOS of UA Little Rock and the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General have launched a new website, ualr.edu/covid-19, an essential tool to countering the spread of misinformation surrounding COVID-19
- Nitin Agarwal, ARA Fellow and Maulden-Entergy Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Science at UA Little Rock, is the director of COSMOS, The Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies
- COSMOS studies online and social media behaviors to help combat threats like terrorism, election fraud, viral spreads, crime, and more.
- COSMOS and the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General is teaming up to combat the harmful misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The website identifies misinformation placed on popular web platforms, provides tips for recognizing fake news, and enables users to report misinformation to authorities.
- The website is available to the public NOW
- Founded in 2008, Arkansas Research Alliance elevates the role of research in Arkansas and its impact on the state’s economy.
- Arkansas Research Alliance is led by former Acxiom executive Jerry Adams.
If you would like to contact this core facility, please fill out the "Facility Contact Form" on the right of this page. This contact method helps ARA measure the success of the CFE in connecting potential collaborators and will flow directly to the core director’s email inbox.