Fake news about the virus could be just as harmful as COVID-19.
Whendozens of people in Nigeria, Irán, Russia, Uruguay y Arizonawere hospitalizedin late March 2020,they were not victims of the notorious coronavirus. they were deceivedby what the WorldHealthOrganization refers to as an“infodemic." After reading false information on social media, they had attempted to use various harmful metroethods, incluido industrialmenthol and chloroquine phosphate, to prevent contraction of the virus.
According to WHO, an infodemic is“an excessive amount of information about a problem, which makes it difficult to identify a solution." It can includemisinformation, disinformation, fake news and rumors during a health emergency that hamper an effective public health responseby creating confusion and distrust.
This phenomena didn’t come as a surprise, as Creative Associates International's Development Lab has been focusing on disinformation for years in the context of its projects around the world; however, the mix of rapidly developing social media space andeljust as swiftly spreading coronavirus gave elinfodemic a new spin. Because disinformation will continue deepening theglobal health crisis, any efforts to offset the infodemic’s effects are urgent and necessary. As a global development implementer, Creative has a role to play in supporting its communities in this space.
The delicate pandemic-infodemic dance
Spread of rumorsand untruthful information can be traced as far back asRoman times, perothe notorious termdisinformation was introducedcasia century ago byelSoviet Union’s Joseph Stalin.And whileelUSSR ceased to exist almost three decades ago, disinformationwars have beenincreasingacross the globe, especially in thepastfive years due to fast development of the social media networks and the very nature of disinformation andfake news.
El use of social media has increased the dissemination of news and information, according to a 2017 study by theArkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service. At the same time, the very scandalous nature of fake information and fake news allows for much faster spread than the truthful information, a 2018MIT study found. Disinformation has also beenadopted, in unprecedented ways, as a tool ofconflictby several major political influencers, including Iran, Russia, Porcelana, Pakistán, India, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Por September 2019, al menos 70 countries had been exposed toelir disinformation (up from 48 en 2018 y 28 en 2017), according to anOxford University study.
Amid COVID-19,eldisinformationnarratives havecentered around healthconcerns, conspiracy theories, lockdown fears y false cures, as well associetal and politicalpolarization, according toa study by the EUDisinfo Lab.
A joint Reuters Institute and Oxford Universitystudy encontró quemientrasthe amount of disinformationhas grown like never before during COVID-19, sohas the number ofinstitutional andindividual fact–checkers (900 deJanuarya March 2020). According to the study, 59 por ciento of the disinformation was reconfigured content, and the rest was completely false content. The reconfigured content received 87 por ciento of social media interactions.Twenty percentof the content was top-down (either purposeful or accidental) disinformation sharing from high-level politicians, security agencies engaged in inauthentic online behavior and celebrities, but this kind of content received over 69 por ciento of reactions.
Disinformation is oftendisguised asmerelya political tool, but when a pandemicbreaks out, elrumor millkicks into gear. Past pandemics, incluidocholera yEbola, havebeen accompanied by disinformation or aninfodemic. As emotions and fears run high, pandemics offerfertile ground for the spread of disinformation. Por ejemplo, Russian disinformationhas relied on emotionto attract people to their narrative for the past10 a15 años, y the current crisis is no different.
Yonder, a startup that studies disinformation, has discovered that during uncertain times like COVID-19, conspiracy narratives spread faster. Under normal circumstances, it takes themsixaeight months to fully penetrate, pero amid COVID-19 it only takesthree to 14 days. As people around the world social distance, many have turned to social media –the fastestdisseminator of fake news – for more information and almost everyone is exposed to theinfodemic. And there’s another twist: elmore theinfodemic spreads ycauses distrust inhealthcare authorities (like the WHO or the CDC), the morethe pandemicevolves.
Pandemics are not the only time when disinformation spikes.Elections are anothercommonwayfor disinformation to flourish, especially when it comes to foreign-sourced disinformation, según elNational Endowment for Democracy. Disinformation also spikes duringviolent conflicts, which in extreme cases can lead to agenocide.
Disinformation might seem like a mere buzzword to some. But it is arguably as harmful as any other weapon of mass destruction, because it provokes mass real–life action.And while combating disinformation in general is important, at a time of a pandemic this task becomes critical.
Creative’s work on disinformation
Leaning on its decades of experiencein citizen security, Creativotook interest in disinformation’s effect on fundamental freedoms and societal resiliency long before COVID-19. Creative has implemented programming to strengthen independent and unbiased mediain places like Syria and Afghanistan.Creativo's Development Labhas also begun to engage in the disinformation detection and responsespace, specifically looking at disinformation on online networks. El Labhas conductedsocial media monitoring for several of Creative’s programs, such as analyzing thousands ofsocial media posts from public Boko Haram-affiliated accounts to investigate the group’s mentality and strategies.
Creative's Development Labis producingquick guides ondifferentiating between fake news andprofessional news reporting yfinding differences between inauthentic and coordinated social media campaigns and genuine posts, developing trainings and supporting materials for Creative projects andthe communities we support.
Even though tél infodemic is mostly taking place online, the consumers and the debunkers of disinformation (such as fact-checkers, community leaders and journalists) are underphysicaldistancing restrictions. This makes a lot of traditional fact-checking and journalistic activitiesmásdifficult. Sin embargo, this challenge has amplified the need for expanding the use ofopen source intelligence (OSINT) toolsand training civil societies and journalists infinding and investigating disinformation through OSINT. At the same time, becausethis work haslargely moved to theonline space, making itvulnerable tocyber-attacks y technological sanitation, digital security and encryptionwith integration of physical and psycho-social security have become key.
On the other hand, aspeople’s wider concerns arounddisinformation and fake news grow, expansion of social behavior change communications (SBCC) is needed. SBCC could equip people with deeper critical thinking techniquesand turn them into analytical information consumers.
The disinformation efforts have been multiplying amid COVID-19, making it difficult to deliver authentic information about the virus to populations. At the same time, it is a pivotal time for news reporting, news consumption habits and responsible technology. Creative’s teams are focusing on using existing communications channels to disseminate accurate, vetted information on the pandemic with partners and community members, as well as supporting new efforts to combat disinformation as it arises in the contexts where we work.
For more information and updates about Creative and our programs’ response to COVID-19,click here.