Insights into social media users' motives for sharing unverified news

"Fake news" is a fairly recent term. However, literature demonstrates that the dissemination of fake news on social media has increased over recent years. While existing studies have mostly looked at fake news detection, research on the motives behind why people share fake news has been limited especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying a thematic analysis on data collected from faceto-face and online interviews, the purpose of this qualitative study is to gain an understanding of how social media users gather and share fake news through the lived experiences of 15 social media users in Selangor, Malaysia. All social media users involved had experienced receiving and sharing fake news with their circle of friends and family. We found that the users share unverified news mainly via WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. We conclude that news is shared with the intention to be the "first messenger", to educate others, to gain more followers, and to create chaos and panic. This research, identifying a few knowledge gaps, proposes more future research on the spread of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic.