Responding to Fake News. The Use of Facebook for Public Health Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

Italy was the first Western country to face the Covid-19 pandemic, and the first to be involved in an infodemic, an epidemic of information characterized by a mix of facts, fears and rumors, often spectacularized by mass media and fueled by political interests. In this problematic context, Italian government and public sector organizations have decided to strategically use their official social media channels to inform the population about the preventive measures to take, to diffuse institutional interventions for national healthcare and economics, and to fight the spread of disinformation that could harm citizens and create panic. This chapter, adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that intertwines public sector and health communication, and with an approach that mixes qualitative and quantitative methods, investigates how Italian Regions have used their official Facebook pages to communicate the pandemic and to interact with publics from the beginning of the epidemic until the end of the country lockdown in May 2020.