A Dashboard Approach to Monitoring Mpox-Related Discourse and Misinformation on Social Media
Linfeng, Zhao, Rishul Bhuvanagiri, Blake Gonzales, Kellen Sharp, Dhiraj Murthy
TL;DR
The paper addresses the challenge of mpox-related misinformation on social media and the need for real-time, local-level public health monitoring. It presents a researcher-focused dashboard built with Python and Streamlit that ingests multiple mpox tweet datasets, filters content, and provides searchable, engagement-aware visualizations with sentiment and topic clustering. The work contributes design principles for decision-support dashboards, real-time discourse visualization, and insights into cynicism and misinformation trends to inform targeted health communication. This dashboard supports local public health stakeholders in monitoring evolving narratives and crafting culturally informed, timely responses to infodemics.
Abstract
Mpox (formerly monkeypox) is a zoonotic disease caused by an orthopoxvirus closely related to variola and remains a significant global public health concern. During outbreaks, social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) can both inform and misinform the public, complicating efforts to convey accurate health information. To support local response efforts, we developed a researcher-focused dashboard for use by public health stakeholders and the public that enables searching and visualizing mpox-related tweets through an interactive interface. Following the CDC's designation of mpox as an emerging virus in August 2024, our dashboard recorded a marked increase in tweet volume compared to 2023, illustrating the rapid spread of health discourse across digital platforms. These findings underscore the continued need for real-time social media monitoring tools to support public health communication and track evolving sentiment and misinformation trends at the local level.