  The spread of misinformation can cause social confusion. The authenticity of
information on a social networking service (SNS) is unknown, and false
information can be easily spread. Consequently, many studies have been
conducted on methods to control the spread of misinformation on social
networking sites. However, few studies have examined the impact of the spread
of misinformation and its corrections on society. This study models the impact
of the reduction of misinformation and the diffusion of corrective information
on social disruption, and it identifies the features of this impact. In this
study, we analyzed misinformation regarding the shortage of toilet paper during
the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, its corrections, and the excessive purchasing
caused by this information. First, we analyze the amount of misinformation and
corrective information spread on SNS, and we create a regression model to
estimate the real-world impact of misinformation and its correction. This model
is used to analyze the change in real-world impact corresponding to the change
in the diffusion of misinformation and corrective information. Our analysis
shows that the corrective information was spread to a much greater extent than
the misinformation. In addition, our model reveals that the corrective
information was what caused the excessive purchasing behavior. As a result of
our further analysis, we found that the amount of diffusion of corrective
information required to minimize the impact on the real world depends on the
amount of the diffusion of misinformation.
