Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation: Perception of residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria

: The concerns over COVID-19 misinformation on social media platforms, particularly on Facebook have attracted scholarly interrogations worldwide, particularly on the use of its platform to peddle lies and share falsehoods about the pandemic. Hence, the study examined Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation: Perception of residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The work was guided by three research objectives and hinged on conspiracy theory. It employed a survey research design and a questionnaire for data collection. The population of the study was 4,200,400 while the sample size was 385 purposively selected and with 377 returned valid and analysed. Findings show that Facebook has been used to spread misinformation about COVID-19 and to a reasonable extent too. Further findings reveal that false information about COVID-19 on Facebook has compromised preventive actions. It, however, concluded that the menace could be curbed using multiple ways such as sourcing information from reliable Facebook accounts such as from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); monitoring and removing COVID-19 misinformation as well as using verifiable testimonials of survivors on Facebook, including encouraging stakeholders in the health sector to increase their campaigns. Consequently, the paper recommends that Facebook users need always make critical judgments regarding the information they post concerning the virus. It also recommends that there should be intensive campaigns by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other relevant health institutions and governments across the globe on the need to sensitize people to desist from spreading misinformation on COVID-19.


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Information emanating from Facebook users who are not experts on health matters and who failed to verify the authenticity triggered the spread of misinformation on the virus on a global scale, including in Nigeria. Hence, the need to study Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation: perception of residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria.

Statement of the problem
Facebook has received criticism for allowing its users to use its platform to disseminate misleading information on COVID-19 thus making the prevention, curtailment, management, and treatment of the disease difficult (Broniatowski, Izhar & Torabi, 2022). For instance, Egielewa and Ate (2020) looked at COVID-19, misinformation and disinformation: an investigation of Nigerians' perspective of social media health awareness initiatives; Inobemhe, Ugber and Udeh (2020) examined COVID-19 conspiracies, myths, and fake news on social media and how the hoax was endangering Nigerians' lives; Annune, Agoh, Annune and Ihongo (2020) looked at sensitization and awareness creation as tools for curbing perceived effects of COVID-19 pandemic on university library users in Nigeria and, Adomi and Oyovwe-Tinuoye (2021) examined the pandemic from the standpoint of information seeking and utilisation among library and information science professionals in Nigeria. While these studies have contributed knowledge to the existing body of literature, there is, however, a dearth of literature on Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation from the standpoint of the public. Against this backdrop, this study, consequently, examines Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation from the perspective of residents in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria.

Research objectives
The investigation of Facebook and COVID-19 Misinformation: Perspective of Residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria, is the main goal of this study. While the specific objectives include: 1. To find out if the resident of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria perceive Facebook as a platform that spread misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic.

2.
To establish their perception of the extent to which misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic spread on Facebook.

3.
To ascertain their perception on how misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic on Facebook has undermined preventive measures. 4. To establish their perception on how to curb misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic on Facebook.

COVID-19
COVID-19 also known as coronavirus is a novel and large family of zoonotic viruses that emanated towards late 2019. As a zoonotic virus, it implies that it can be transmitted from animals to humans. It causes illness ranging from common cold to more severe respiratory diseases with the first official cases documented on the 31 st of December of the same year in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China (World Health Organisation, 2023). Nwafor, Ugwuanyi and Amatu (2023) add that COVID-19 is a multifaceted international public health crisis that was first recorded in Wuhan, China in 2019. Since the incidence, there is a lot of infodemics around the world about the sickness; its mode of transmission, treatment and prevention. It was declared a public health emergency of international concern on the 30 th of January 2020 and on 11 th March 2020, it was declared a pandemic following it global spread; its first such designation since the swine flu caused by Hemagglutinin 1 Neuraminidase 1 (H1N1) influenza in 2009 (David, 2021). The virus's symptoms are likened to common cold and respiratory-related illnesses including dry cough, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulty. Others include fever, loss of sense of smell and taste, and diarrhea. Severe cases could cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure as well as death (McLeod, 2020). The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was officially named on 11 th of February |33 2020, by the Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, 2020). The outbreak of the disease affected the world in multiple and negative ways. Social interaction was brought to the barest since the virus transmits through contacts with individuals who have contracted it; local and international travel were impeded as airports, railway and parks were shut; social events such as sports, carnivals and other related public functions were put on hold indefinitely; schools were forced to close, and international trades as well as other forms of international collaborations were adversely affected, particularly when national and international borders were compelled to shut down following the declaration of lockdown which lasted for several months (Amzat, Aminu, Kolo, Akinyele, Ogundairo & Danjibo, 2020).
As of 19th of March 2023, the world has recorded over 760 million confirmed cases, and over 6.8 million lives have been lost to the disease (WHO, 2023). The index case in Nigeria was reported on February 27, 2020, after an Italian national who worked there and had returned from Milan, Italy, two days earlier, returned a positive test in Lagos (Ministry of Health, 2020). As of 28 th March 2023, 5,708,974 samples have been collected with 266,660 confirmed cases, and 3,155 recorded deaths (NCDC, 2023). Despite the huge figures stated, tremendous success has been recorded in flattening the curve of the pandemic, and death caused by the virus has been significantly curtailing across the world. One of the measures that have proven to be effective in curtailing the spread of the pandemic is the development, deployment, and administration of vaccines across the world (Lucas & Ejiga, 2022). Despite the successes recorded, like the COVID-19 pandemic, these vaccines have also been shrouded with misinformation shared online, including on Facebook (Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 2021).

Facebook
Studies and advancement of the Internet architectural framework from static Web 1.0 to interactive Web 2.0 paved the way for the emergence of social media platforms, including Facebook. Facebook was created in February 2004 as a website exclusively for Harvard students by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. It rapidly expanded to include college students with.edu email addresses; then between 2005 and 2006 it further expanded to include high school networks, then workplace networks, and finally to include all users of the Internet worldwide (Valenzuela, Park & Kee, 2008). According to Olutade (2021), Facebook is a free platform of social networking sites that permits individuals around the globe to registered and voluntarily create user's profiles, post pictures, and videos, keep in touch with loved ones. Since its modest beginnings in 2004, Facebook has expanded quickly with Statista (2022) estimating that the platform has over 2 billion users and 1.93 billion active daily users thus making it the most popular social media platform worldwide. In Nigeria, as of January 2023, Facebook users were estimated to be about 26,178,700 million (NapoleonCat, 2023).
The social media platform Facebook has proven to be popular and important in facilitating online communication. Several scholars have been interested in this social network due to its enormous popularity and expansion, and many of them have started studies. Via the COVID-19 Information Centre on the Facebook app and Instagram, which has connected over two billion people across 189 countries and provided accurate and useful COVID-19 information, the platform has continued to develop to satisfy the interactivity and interconnectivity needs of its users (Jin, 2021).

Misinformation
Advancement in technology and the proliferation of social media platforms has made information available to a global audience, increasing the spread of information and misinformation. The term ''misinformation'' became popular after the 2016 United States (U.S.) presidential election (Quandt, Boberg, Frischlich & Schatto-Eckrodt, 2019). It has several definitions depending on how it is formulated and the context in which it is used. As popular as the term misinformation is, there is, however, no universally accepted definition.
Cooke (2017) sees misinformation as a type of information while Zarocostas (2020) on the other hand sees it as false, rumors, gossip, and misleading use of facts. Lewandowsky, Ecker, Seifert, Schwarz, and Cook (2012) described misinformation as information originally presented as being accurate but found to be inaccurate. Misinformation has negative consequences on our societies' ability to digest information that can influence every facet of our national life, including the health sector (Aral, 2020). Zarocostas (2020) described the term misinformation as false or inaccurate information deliberately intended to deceive. For this study, the term 'misinformation' is defined as unintentional information that misleads members of the public to make a wrong judgment or behave in a way that is contrary to the expected action.

Facebook and misinformation on the COVID-19
The COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook is not only peculiar to the western world but also a common occurrence in Nigeria. False conspiracy theories that claim the disease was bioengineered in a lab in Wuhan or that the 5G cellular network is causing or exacerbating symptoms of the virus are just two examples of the widespread misinformation about COVID-19 that has circulated on social media, especially Facebook (BBC News, 2020). There was a fallacy or myth that Nigerians were immune to the virus and that COVID-19 was a hoax that was endangering lives during the early phase of the virus outbreak in Nigeria (Aiyewumi & Okeke, 2020).
The spread of this untrue information has not helped matters in the management of the pandemic but has increasingly created problems, especially for the global healthcare system (BBC, 20221; Mayhew, 2020). According to a report by Milmo (2021), more than a dozen Facebook and Instagram profiles, pages, and groups that collectively have amassed about 370,000 followers over the past year have permitted the propagation of false information and skeptic views about COVID-19, notably on vaccines. Milmo (2021: 2) further claims that Facebook has been letting false information about the pandemic spread on its site, citing posts in Facebook groups that suggest youngsters are being "murdered by the experimental shot they're being urged to take".  (2021), there has been an excess flow of information on the pandemic, including misleading and fabricated news that are been spread thereby complicating response efforts. The WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus states, "We're not just battling the virus…. We're also battling the trolls and conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and undermine the outbreak response" (para. 2).

The danger of COVID-19 misinformation of Facebook
Collins (2021) posited that the misinformation on Facebook has been a long-time concern for physicians as the "viral spread of lies and conspiracy theories online has led people to refuse safe and effective vaccines and enabled a deadly wave of the Delta variant" (para.1). BBC (2021) expressed concerns on the danger of misinformation when they reported that it has a huge consequence on public health, public perspective on contagious like the ravaging COVID-19 and has influenced the level of compliance to safety measures. A study conducted by Bode and Vraga (2015) found that misinformation is misleading and has damaging consequences. Al-Zaman (2021) corroborated Bode and Vraga (2015) when he states that misinformation "challenges human communication, producing tension, misunderstanding, and disbelief" (p. 100). On the other hand, Mayhew (2020) said that inaccurate information about the COVID-19 on social media platforms has caused anxiety, tension, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation, creating a new hazard to public health communication. According to research by Broniatowski et al. (2022), also found that misinformation in the online space is undermining the campaign against the pandemic thus the need to address the negative effects of online disinformation on public health behaviours.
BBC News (2020, para. 1) avers that "At least 800 people may have died around the world because of coronavirus-related misinformation in the first three months of this year". While Ahmed, Vidal-Alaball, Downing, and López Segu (2020), as cited in Gabarron et al. (2021), proposed that inaccurate information about the pandemic is preventing people from acting in a way that would help protect their health and the health of others, leading them to spread the disease or engage in other problematic behaviours. The WHO has also acknowledged the risk posed by false information on COVID-19.

Curbing misinformation on the COVID-19 on Facebook
While COVID-19 misinformation on social media, especially Facebook, is a worldwide concern, it must be addressed from multiple angles to be contained. Facebook has collaborated with governments from more than 120 nations as well as international agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and United |35 Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to disseminate accurate information about the COVID-19, including providing support lines on WhatsApp. In addition to continuing to collaborate with researchers and public health officials by giving them up-to-date information and tools to help them forecast and understand the disease, effective prevention measures, the platform has been working tirelessly to combat the threat of misinformation on it (Jin, 2021). WHO (2020) has created and made available shareable infographics to dispel myths and other false information. To promote accurate, factual, dependable, and true information above false information, the worldwide health organization has also produced and distributed shareable infographics (dubbed "mythbusters") that dispel specific COVID-19 falsehoods (WHO, 2021). According to academics like Juliet (2021) and Longstal (2005), Facebook should saturate its online space with accurate and trustworthy information that can aid the public in making informed decisions, changing their behavior for the better, and adhering to the measures, particularly the nonpharmaceutical protocols put in place to curtail the virus, including the types of treatment.
Creating campaigns against the spread of false information on the pandemic is effective. A prime example is BBC's "Stop the Spread," which debuted in May and June 2020 on its global television network, website, and apps (BBC, 2021). Another strategy employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce the harm and spread of inaccurate information is to increase public awareness of the amount of misinformation about the COVID-19 and to encourage individuals to confirm facts (2020). Similarly, removing or deleting misinformation is gradually proven to be an effective means of curbing the menace of misinformation on Facebook. Jin (2021: 6) emphasises this when she states, "we've removed more than 12 million pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram containing misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm".

Empirical review
In a paper titled "COVID-19-Related Misinformation on Social Media: A Systematic Review," Gabarron, Oyeyemi and Wynn (2021) examined this issue. The study's major goal was to examine false information about the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) that circulated on social media during the pandemic's initial stages and to explore strategies for dispelling false information. A qualitative research approach was used for this investigation. The percentage of COVID-19 misinformation on social media was found to range from 0.2% (413/212 846) to 28.8% (194/673) of posts, according to the research. Among the 22 investigations, 11 did not classify the kind of false information associated with COVID-19, nine detailed false information myths, and two reported sarcasm or humor. Only four studies examined the potential effects of disinformation about COVID-19, and all four investigations found that it caused dread or panic. According to the study's findings, social media is becoming a more significant tool for disseminating reliable information as well as false information. The study recommended that healthcare organizations use its findings to help them get ready for future COVID-19 infodemic phases and other infodemics in general.
In 138 nations, Al-Zaman (2021) studied the prevalence and source analysis of COVID-19 disinformation. In order to determine the prevalence and sources of misinformation in various nations, the study examined 9657 pieces of false information that originated in these 138 countries and were fact-checked by 94 organizations. India (15.94%), the USA (9.74%), Brazil (8.57%), and Spain (8.03%) are the four nations most affected by misinformation, according to the results. The study assumed that there would be a positive correlation between the COVID-19 solution and the occurrence of COVID-misinformation. Most of the COVID-19 misinformation came from social media (84.94%), and most of it overall (90.5%) came from the internet. According to the survey, out of all social media platforms, Facebook alone was responsible for 66.87% of the misinformation.
Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: experimental evidence for a scaleable accuracynudge intervention was the focus of a 2020 study by Pennycook, McPhetres, Zhang, Lu and Rand (Pennycook, McPhetres, Zhang, Lu & Rand, 2020). The survey research design was used for the investigation. Results showed that people spread misleading information about COVID-19 in part because they do not consider the accuracy of the content well enough before sharing it. Comparatively to when they were questioned explicitly about accuracy, participants performed much worse when choosing what they would share on social media. Furthermore, discernment was linked to higher levels of cognitive reflection and science knowledge. Further findings revealed that a straightforward accuracy check at the start of the study-evaluating the correctness of a headline unrelated to COVID-19-nearly tripled the degree of real discernment in participants' subsequent sharing intentions. According to the study, encouraging people to consider accuracy can help them make better decisions about what information to post on social media. Daloeng and Ejiga (2020) used survey to obtain data from respondents in Jos on the topic "Use of internet memes in creating awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic among youths in Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria". The study was guided by the visual rhetoric mode. Result from the research indicated that Facebook was the dominant social media tool that the youth in Jos used to get memes information concerning coronavirus. The study equally established that most of the information posted on Facebook using memes were misleading. As a way forward, the research suggested that governments and health workers all over the world should take advantage of Facebook to share health information to the people. It was also recommended that the mass media, health organizations, the government and the educational setting should devote time to educate the people on how to employ visual communication tools so as to assist in countering the deployment of memes to circulate fake information about ailments on the social media.

Theoretical framework
Conspiracies are the foundation of the study. COVID-19 has been the subject of conspiracy theories since the onset of the pandemic (Chen, 2021). The proliferation of conspiracy theories in the open media of the internet age has led to worries about how misinformation shapes public opinion and the COVID-19 pandemic problem.
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an occurrence or circumstance that suggests a political, frequently evil, and strong group is involved (Jaron & Stef, 2021;Ted, 1994). This suggests that a conspiracy theory is a hypothesis in which a highly significant secret is being withheld from the general population. Conspiracy theories are attempts to explain events or behaviors in terms of actors secretly misusing their power to attain their own aims ( Conspiracy theories and misinformation are frequently supported by people due to their own psychological requirements for stability and control (Festinger, 1957;Kunda, 1990). When evaluated in the framework of a compelling story that aligns with one's preexisting ideas, unrelated and unresolved events and practices can be more easily understood. Liberals and conservatives alike are prone to accepting ideas that match with their pre-existing views, and partisan ideology has been proven to play a role in the motivated reasoning that goes into conspiracy theory endorsement (CTE) (Miller, Saunders & Farhart, 2015). Therefore, the theory was considered relevant to the study because some of the information disseminated online during the COVID-19 pandemic were capable of misleading policy makers, hindering crisis relief and public efforts to contain the disease, as well as undermine trust in institutions and science.

Methodology
For this study, a questionnaire was used as the primary data collection tool in a survey research design. Residents of Jos North Local Government Area in Plateau State made up the study's population, estimated to be 4,200,400 (City Population, 2021). Survey Monkey's sampling calculator was used to determine the study's sample size of 385 and they were then administered copies of the questionnaire on a face-to-face basis using the purposive sample approach which allowed for data collection from only the residents who use Facebook.
Further, the questionnaire was then administered to the respondents in Tudun Wada, Jenta Adamu, Kabong, Alheri, Farin Gada, Babale, Larantos, Angwa Rogo, Naraguta, Angwa Rukuba,Fudawa, Furaka, Gwash, Gwafan, Nasarrawa Gwog, Rusau, Terminus, Targwong and Dong. In the end, the researchers retrieved all the questionnaire copies distributed but only 377 were correctly filled and found valid for analysis. Therefore, the data presented and analyzed were based on 98% validity of the questionnaire administered. A five-point Likert scale and the criteria mean of 5 points is 3.00 and a frequency table was used. When the table mean is greater than the criteria mean, that is, from 3.00 and above, the statement is accepted, according to the Likert scale's criterion mean of 3.00. However, if the table mean is smaller than

Journal of Emerging Technologies (JET)
|37 the criteria mean-i.e., less than 3.00-it suggests that the assertion is rejected. The study then presented and analyzed data using mean deviation, frequency tables, and straightforward percentages.  Table 1 implies that the respondents accepted that Facebook does spread misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic with a mean rating of 3.5.  Table 2 implies that the respondents accepted that misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic spread to a reasonable extent on Facebook with a meaning rating of 3.3. It also implies that misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic on Facebook has reached a worrisome height as perceived by the respondents.   Data contained in Table 4 implies that misinformation of the COVID-19 on Facebook could be curbed in multiple ways. Majority of the respondents [59%] perceived that COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook could be curbed, it, therefore, implies too that by implementing all of the above options provided in the table COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook will be addressed among the respondents.

Discussion of findings
The discussion of findings was done according to the research objectives as follows: The data obtained and analysed reveals several things as it relates to Facebook and COVID-19 misinformation from the standpoint of the residents of the study.

Research Objective One: To find out if the residents of Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria perceive Facebook as a platform that spread misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic:
The first finding of the study shows that Facebook does spread misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic as perceived by the residents of Jos North Local Government in Plateau State, Nigeria. This finding agrees with the work of Bode and Vraga (2015) that found that, besides the platform being used for dissemination of information on the pandemic, it also provided misleading information that undermines measures rolled out to curtail the spread with damaging consequences. The misleading post on Facebook groups that that people who were receiving the early vaccines were being pressure to do so as well as being murdered (Melmo, 2021) also highlight this concern.
Research Objective Two: To establish their perception of the extent to which misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic spread on Facebook: Another finding from the work reveals that misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic spread to a reasonable extent on Facebook thus aligns with the report of WHO (2020) which avers that misinformation on social media, including Facebook spreads faster than the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19

Conclusion/Recommendations
The study investigated how inhabitants of Jos North Local Government Area in Plateau State, Nigeria, perceived Facebook, and COVID-19 misinformation. In the study population, like in other areas of the world, the work concluded that Facebook has been found to be disseminating false information about the virus to a reasonable extent, has established empirically. The study further concluded that, in the eyes of the citizens of Jos North Local Government in Plateau State, Nigeria, false information about COVID-19 on Facebook has compromised preventive actions. However, the research concluded that the menace of the COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook could be curbed in multiple ways such as sourcing information from reliable Facebook accounts such as from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); monitoring and removing COVID-19 misinformation as well as using verifiable testimonials of survivors on Facebook, including encouraging stakeholders in the health sector to increase their campaigns on COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook. Therefore, Facebook users need to always make critical judgments regarding the information they post and access on Facebook concerning COVID-19. Such users may be able to lessen their propensity to spread false information on COVID-19 if they have the necessary knowledge, awareness, and capacity to recognize bogus content on the platform. Equally important is intensive campaigns by World Health Organisation (WHO) and other relevant health institutions and governments across the globe on the need to sensitise people to desist from spreading misinformation on Facebook about COVID-19. Fake information about the COVID-19 is unacceptable as it undermines the preventive efforts of health authorities. Further, Facebook should increase their monitoring and removal of misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic and should sanction users who repeatedly contravene their guidelines while using their platform.