Twitter Networks during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic: Online Networking at the Time of Physical “Social Distancing”

Abstract

This longitudinal study examined Twitter networks during the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Networks and content from of 87,793 users, 109,204 connections, and 1,655 unique tweets were explored in a multimethod approach of social network analysis and content analysis. The findings show that Twitter users focused on medical issues, politics, and blaming during the COVID-19 pandemic more than other topics and relied more on news and self-information than official sources.