Tracing the dynamics of misinformation and vaccine stance in Finland amid COVID-19

This study analyzed 1,683,700 vaccine-related tweets in Finnish using FinBERT language model, Botometer, and BERTopic, from December 2019 to October 2022. A strong correlation was identified between Negative Stance towards Vaccines (NSV) and misinformation, with an upward trend over time and a significant role of malicious bot accounts. Topic modeling revealed persistent themes of vaccine skepticism and diverse misinformation themes adapting to debunking efforts. Approximately a third of tweets contained misinformation, irrespective of source reliability, leading to increased NSV. The study observed a gap in active countering of misinformation by authorities, suggesting proactive involvement by public authorities, public education for effective misinformation management and social media literacy.