The Contribution of Verified Accounts to Self-Disclosure in COVID-Related Twitter Conversations

On Twitter, so-called verified accounts represent celebrities and organizations of public interest, selected by Twitter based on criteria for both activity and notability. Our work seeks to understand the involvement and influence of these accounts in patterns of self-disclosure, namely, voluntary sharing of personal information. In a study of 3 million COVID-19 related tweets, we present a comparison of self-disclosure in verified vs ordinary users. We discuss evidence of peer effects on self-disclosing behaviors and analyze topics of conversation associated with these practices.