Paper long abstract:

The research on the spread of COVID-19 related ‘fakes’ in Uzbekistan focuses on social, political and partly economic factors which determine the popularity of false information in social media, and the implications it may have to social life of people. The analysis of the distribution channels and users’ reactions showed that the key actors of the spread were the social media users which disseminated the fakes through messengers and closed social media groups. Despite the tightened legislation on the spread of fake news and availability of official channels of communication, the fake news were more popular among social media users than the information provided by the government agencies. Among the structural factors which predetermined the popularity of fakes in social media space in Uzbekistan are unpopular decisions by the government throughout the pandemic, low level of social protection and heavy consumption of foreign media content, mainly Russian. Practically in all fakes on political topics, the following techniques were used: articulation with pseudoscientific facts, loud inviting headlines hinting at the unfair government policy, a reference to the theory of conspiracy, etc. The deep spread of fakes had a spillover effect in social life and affected the personal perceptions of people. In particular, a few cases of harmful measures introduced by the government agencies, which were believed to have a preventive effect against COVID-19, demonstrate that the implications of fakes spread far beyond the virtual space. The absence of a comprehensive fact-checking platform and removed content are among the limitations of the research.