GMO discussion on Twitter

Dmitry Erokhin; Nadejda Komendantova

doi:10.1080/21645698.2023.2241160

GMO discussion on Twitter

GM Crops Food. 2023 Dec 31;14(1):1-13. doi: 10.1080/21645698.2023.2241160.

Authors

Dmitry Erokhin¹, Nadejda Komendantova¹

Affiliation

¹ Advancing Systems Analysis, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.

Abstract

This paper focuses on analyzing discussions related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on Twitter, with a specific focus on the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. The authors collected and analyzed 1,048,274 English tweets related to GMOs between January 2020 and December 2022 using the Twitter API. The tweets were subjected to topical and sentiment analysis to identify the prevalent themes and attitudes toward GMOs. 30.92% of the tweets in the observed period were negative, 21.65% were neutral, and 47.43% were positive. The authors identified four clusters of tweets associated with misinformation or conspiracy theories: GMOs and vaccines, GMOs and COVID-19, GMOs and Monsanto, and GMOs and Bill Gates. The findings of this analysis can inform strategies for combating the spread of false information and conspiracies on social media and improve public understanding and trust in GMO technology.

Keywords: Conspiracy; GMO; Twitter; misinformation; sentiment analysis.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Communication
Plants, Genetically Modified
Social Media*

Grants and funding

This paper has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101021746 in frames of the “Science and Human Factors for Resilience Society” (CORE) project.