Specifics of infodemic in Russia: From whatsapp to the investigative committee

Since January 2020, the Contemporary Folklore Monitoring research team has been studying the specifics of the infodemic in Russia (infodemic refers to widely circulated rumors, pseudoscientific remedies, conspiracy theories and denialism related to the COVID19 epidemic) The study aims to describe what the infodemic involves and how it spreads The authors draw two databases: (1) texts from the Russian social media collected using the Medialogia tool (167 narratives), and (2) cases of criminal and administrative trials against citizens for disseminating 'inaccurate information' (rumors) about the coronavirus and ways to fight that (203 cases) Based on the quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the authors describe how the infodemic is 'arranged', what topics are popular, and why they are popular;they analyze what triggers the infodemic 'waves';and what types of narrative circulated through informal channels of communication may pose danger to public health or can be considered dangerous by the court © 2020 Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM All rights reserved