August 5, 2020

Big Data, Natural Language Processing, and Deep Learning to Detect and Characterize Illicit COVID-19 Product Sales: An Infoveillance Study on Twitter and Instagram

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

• Mackey et al. identified 1,271 tweets and 596 Instagram posts marketing fake COVID-19 health products, including unapproved, illegal, and counterfeit testing kits and treatments. Between February and May of 2020, they observed three distinct waves of advertisements for “immunity-boosting” treatments, suspect testing kits, and pharmaceutical products that are not approved for COVID-19 treatment. Each wave followed news coverage about product research and development. 

Mackey et al. (May 28, 2020). Big Data, Natural Language Processing, and Deep Learning to Detect and Characterize Illicit COVID-19 Product Sales: An Infoveillance Study on Twitter and Instagram. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. https://doi.org/10.2196/20794