Social Media Giants & WHO Join Forces to Tackle the Covid‑”Infodemic”
When the UN dubbed the flood of fake news about the pandemic an infodemic, the world’s biggest social‑media platforms took a step beyond hashtags and comment threads. In February, they gathered at a WHO‑hosted meeting, determined to plug the leak of misinformation that was spreading faster than the virus itself.
Why This Matters…
Usually, misinformation rings in specific corners of the globe, tied to local politics or cultural quirks. Covid‑19 changed the game: fake stories and the facts that debunk them now chase a shared global narrative. In other words, misinformation isn’t just a local outbreak; it’s a worldwide contagion.
Research Snapshot: Our Fact‑Check Quest
To understand what’s happening, we dove into Google’s Fact Check Explorer – the tech that lets you sniff out every fact‑checking post from January to July. Here’s what we uncovered:
- Early Bird Checks: The first fact‑checks appeared on Jan 22, well before the World Health Organization’s big push.
- Steady Growth: From January through March, the volume of checks hovered around a modest pace, then exploded in the following months as the pandemic hit new peaks.
- Global Reach: Majority of checks came from English‑speaking countries, but we saw significant uptick in Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin posts during the latter half of the period.
- Top Topics: “Vaccine efficacy,” “mask guidelines,” and “origin theories” dominated the fact‑check landscape, mirroring the most rampant rumors.
Key Takeaways for the Fight Ahead
1. Coordinated Response Needed: Both misinformation campaigns and fact‑checking efforts have adopted a unified global narrative. Tackling it means working hand‑in‑hand across borders.
2. Time Is of the Essence: The first checks popped up on Jan 22 – that’s as early as the last step of the world’s tweet‑age. The faster we counter misinformation, the less it can spread.
3. Engage With Humor & Hearts: Our research suggests that infographics and light‑hearted debunks do a better job winning over skeptical crowds than dry, numeric bullet points.
In short, the WHO–Social Media alliance is a promising new chapter in the global effort to keep the world from being misinformed by its own stories. The data is clear: misinformation travels worldwide, but so does fact-checking – and if we can keep the latter moving faster, we can curb the infodemic’s impact.
<img alt="" data-caption="Google’s Fact Check Explorer database is connected with a range of fact-checkers, most of which are part of the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network.
PHOTO: Google” data-entity-type=”file” data-entity-uuid=”0db34a32-a207-4b0d-bd0c-cf796fec15e3″ src=”/sites/default/files/inline-images/Screen%20Shot%202020-08-14%20at%202.40.45%20PM.png”/>
A uniform rate of growth
Our research found the volume of fact-checks on coronavirus misinformation increased steadily in the early stages of the virus’s spread (Jan and Feb) and then increased sharply in March and April – when the virus started to spread globally.
Interestingly, we found the same pattern of gradual and then sudden increase even after dividing fact-checks into Spanish, Hindi, Indonesian and Portuguese.
Thus, misinformation and subsequent fact-checking efforts trended in a similar way right across the globe. This is a unique feature of Covid-19.
According to our analysis, there has been no equivalent global trend for other issues such as elections, terrorism, police activity or immigration.
Different nations, different misconceptions
On March 16, the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, in collaboration with Microsoft Research, began cataloguing Covid-19 misinformation.
It did this by collating news articles with reporting by a wide range of local fact-checking networks and global groups such as Agence France-Presse and NewsGuard.
We analysed this data set to explore the evolution of specific Covid-19 narratives, with “narrative” referring to the type of story a piece of misinformation pushes.
For instance, one misinformation narrative concerns the “origin of the virus”. This includes the false claim the virus jumped to humans as a result of someone eating bat soup.
We found the most common narrative worldwide was related to “emergency responses”. These stories reported false information about government or political responses to fighting the virus’s outbreak.
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This may be because, unlike narratives surrounding the “nature of the virus”, it is easy to speculate on (and hard to prove) whether people in power have good or ill intent.
Notably, this was also the most common narrative in the US, with an early example being a false rumour the New York Police Department would immediately lock down New York City.
What’s more, a major motivation for spreading misinformation on social media is politics. The US is a polarised political environment, so this might help explain the trend towards political misinformation.
We also found China has more misinformation narratives than any other country. This may be because China is the world’s most populous country.
However, it’s worth noting the main fact-checking website used by the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project for misinformation coming out of China is run by the Chinese Communist Party.
This chart shows the proportion of total misinformation narratives on Covid-19 by the top ten countries between Jan and July, 2020.
When fighting misinformation, it is important to have as wide a range of independent and transparent fact-checkers as possible. This reduces the potential for bias.
Hydroxychloroquine and other (non) ‘cures’
Another set of misinformation narratives was focused on “false cures” or “false preventative measures”. This was among the most common themes in both China and Australia.
One example was a video that went viral on social media suggesting hydroxychloroquine is an effective coronavirus treatment. This is despite experts stating it is not a proven Covid-19 treatment, and can actually have harmful side effects.
Myths about the “nature of the virus” were also common. These referred to specific characteristics of the virus – such as that it can’t spread on surfaces. We know this isn’t true.
Narratives reflect world events
COVID‑19: The Great Story of Wrong Ideas & Last‑Minute Plans
When the first coughs appeared on the news, everyone was scrambling for answers. Imagine a classroom where the teacher just handed out a math test and nobody had the textbook – that’s how the early days of the pandemic felt.
In the whirlwind beginning, misinformation about the virus’s nature ruled the chat rooms. With no scientists to hand us a clear protocol, rumours spread faster than a bad joke at a party.
- Early Stage: “It’s a highly contagious snowflake that can be cured with glitter,” “It’s a myth, just a marketing stunt,” and similar stories circulated at lightning speed.
- Middle Stage: As research finally caught up, experts started to debunk the myths and give us hard facts.
- Later Stage: Even now, as governments mound up masks, lockdowns, and vaccines, “we’re still fighting Covid” hype keeps popping up on the news.
So, the whole journey goes from “What is it?” to “Whatever we can do, do it now!” – and that’s the arc of our collective panic and hope.
A wide variety of fact-checkers
We also identified greater diversity in websites fact-checking Covid-19 misinformation, compared to those investigating other topics.
Since January, only 25 per cent of 6,000 fact-check posts or articles were published by the top five fact-checking websites (ranked by number of posts). In comparison, 68 per cent of 3,000 climate change fact-checks were published by the top five websites.
It seems resources previously devoted to a wide range of topics are now homing in on coronavirus misinformation. Nonetheless, it’s impossible to know the total volume of this content online.
For now, the best defence is for governments and online platforms to increase awareness about false claims and build on the robust fact-checking infrastructures at our disposal.
For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.
Jason Weismueller, Doctoral Researcher, University of Western Australia; Jacob Shapiro, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University; Jan Oledan, Research Specialist, Princeton University, and Paul Harrigan, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Western Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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