This Buzzfeed article documents an absurd amount of misinformation being spread across the internet as it relates to Coronavirus, and this is just a partial list. Not only have certain government sources turned out to be unreliable -- like China lying about whether the virus spread from person to person on January 14, or Trump lying about the availability of testing in the USA, or calling it a Democratic hoax -- but the internet has become infested with conspiracy theories, phony treatments, and racist paranoia.
Here are some excerpts from a terrific analysis on the global war on truth from a Canadian newspaper:
In an alarming number of countries, the surge of coronavirus-related misinformation has been used as a pretext to crack down on information-sharing more broadly. In China, the government’s attempt to suppress information about the outbreak may have actually contributed to the spread of the virus, since no one — including healthcare workers — knew how to protect themselves or even that they should be protecting themselves at all…
Similar arrests for spreading “rumours” and “fake news” have been documented in nearly a dozen countries across Asia and the Middle East…In Thailand, multiple people have been charged with computer crimes for allegedly sharing false information about coronavirus on social media. Similar arrests have been made in Indonesia, where at least two individuals are facing cybercrime charges that could land them in prison for up to five years.Just this week, Indonesian authorities arrested six more people for violating laws that prohibit the sharing of “fake news” and carry a prison sentence of up to six years.“It’s absurd, and wholly disproportionate, that people are facing a potential five-year jail term just for sharing false information online,” said Teddy Baguilat, a former congressman from the Philippines who is now a board member of the advocacy group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).“And think about the chilling impact such measures have on freedom of expression,” Baguilat added. “Keep this up, and people will be too scared to share their opinion about anything.”Yet as the virus has spread to new countries, so, too, has the crackdown on so-called “fake news.” In Iran, officials have arrested at least two dozen people on suspicions of “spreading rumours” about the virus, and a government spokesperson recently warned that anyone else found to be sharing false information would be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and flogging…Besides the potential for abuse, laws that impose criminal penalties for spreading rumours may also scare people into silence and make experts think twice before sharing information.“Criminalization of speech, even if targeted at falsehoods, is highly likely to stifle the real-time sharing of information that is essential during epidemics,” Matthew Bugher, head of Asia Programme for the advocacy group Article 19, told Reuters in February.
That’s what happened after Chinese authorities detained Li and seven other doctors in early January, said Dr. Wang Guangbao, a surgeon and science writer from eastern China. He told The Washington Post many medical professionals, including himself, stopped speaking openly about the virus after seeing the potential consequences.
The COVID-19 outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ — an over-abundance of information, some accurate and some not — that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a leading WHO physician, told National Observer.
The course theme about the changing nature of media fits this story. It is much easier to spread misinformation now in the internet era than in the radio/TV era, but it is still better to err on the side of free speech and not allow government censors decide what is true or not. As frustrating as it is, the least bad way to deal with the infodemic is to learn how to spot reliable information and sources for yourself. There's a never ending tsunami of information, so you students really really need to learn how to swim through it all. Media literacy has become the paramount goal for teaching social studies and history over the past 20 years since the internet became the dominant medium of information for humanity. The coronavirus story has bad information coming from certain government sources and bad information coming from randoms who create it and masses of people who mindlessly share it, and is the perfect example for why you have to learn to be critical readers of media.
Discussion prompts:
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ReplyDelete1. The internet and media being vast and practically limitless, is both beneficial and detrimental to the fact of reliability. Personally,I believe that I do have access to reliable information with the access to the internet, however determining what is the truth and what is false is often difficult. With the numerous sources and companies such as buzzfeed that are spreading false information, it is wise to now check "facts" with other trustworthy sources. Some sources that are majority of the times true include: WHO (World Health Organization,) most .gov/.edu websites, and the news broadcasted on TV.
ReplyDelete2. Last month/ a couple weeks ago when there was the rumor that school was closing, I posted a screenshot of what the rumor entailed. I was tricked by the sheer number of people that told me, believed it to be true, and also all the people posted the same misinformation. I admitted my mistake after the school emailed everyone, and I immediately took down the post in order to stop the rumor from spreading further on my account.
3. To combat fake news and misinformation I believe one should follow a diverse variety of news sources, and more importantly be skeptical of what they read. Although a democratic society needs to have an open debate about certain topics, these open debates should not spread misinformation and also should not be about important facts. In such an important time of crisis, it is dangerous to spread false information. Public issues up for debate should be recognized as debatable topics where there is no right answer. As for the coronavirus, there are practically no debatable topics when it comes to the subject of the risks associated with the COVID-19 virus. Finally, I think that large news and media sources need to make sure what they post and share to millions of people is 100% factually and undisputable. Because when false information is believed as a fact, it is often dangerous.
For future reference, you don't need to respond to all the prompts -- just pick one. That way we are more likely to have a conversation evolve from your comment.
DeleteAlso, Buzzfeed has a mixed reputation in journalism (they probably should not have published the abbreviated and unverified Steele dossier IRT Trump's Russia connections) but I would not accuse them of spreading false information. The link I made was to a Buzzfeed post documenting false information being spread elsewhere.
DeleteI do feel like I have access to reliable information, however, it is difficult to find this reliable information. The truth of many of these websites can sometimes be twisted by bias and misinformation. Like Mina said, I usually tend to look for websites that end in .edu and . org. I also look for well known news websites like the New York times and the Washington post. I believe that I should look into many websites and not just one. By doing so, you get a variety of information, and usually when the information of the different websites match up, that is what I tend to believe.
ReplyDeleteI tend to believe a source more it doesn't seem overly biased or trying to prove a point, and like other people have already said, it is also necessary to cross reference reliable sources when looking for reliable information
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments -- looks like you will need to put your name in your blogger profile and/or sign your posts (if you are a student of mine, anyway.) Cross-referencing aka 'corroboration' is a top strategy for sure!
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ReplyDeleteDo you feel like you have access to reliable information about the risks associated with this virus? How do you determine which sources to trust? I feel like I have access to reliable information even though it is pretty hard to find in some cases. Many websites information is not verified and is biased in some cases.All of the symptoms of the virus are just starting to come out. At first coughing and a sore throat were the "only" symptoms. These symptoms were also symptoms of the common flu which only added to the fear and panic of people as if anyone coughed people would assume they have COVID-19.To find reliable information, I usually look for websites with .edu and .org as they tend to have the most legitimate. If I can't find any articles on those websites I tend to go to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) website as their information is pretty reliable but can show a little bit of bias from time to time.
ReplyDelete1. I think that I have access to reliable information about the risks of COVID-19. However, I also feel like the unreliable information that I get is a lot more common. This is because of social media, which can help send information globally in a matter of seconds. This information gets fudged up in the process and this can cause a lot of false information being trusted. This is why I truly think that only televised news about this virus can be trusted. With news that is only online, like BuzzFeed, it is a lot more about marketing than spreading actual news. Because of this, a lot of the information is eye-catching, but there is no data to back it up. I remember that one of my teachers told us that the symptoms of COVID-19 go in order from a dry cough to a fever to a sore throat, etc., and I was wondering where did the information come from. There are a set of symptoms, which is being expanded as researchers find out more, but they aren't in a specific order. This further emphasizes my point that false information is highly trusted. Also, a major cause of false information is bias. This leads to a set of facts that is only supported by one side. To learn about COVID-19, I have looked at .edu, .org, and .gov sites because I find that they are the most reliable domains, as people have to get authorized to use them. I think that if only the televised information was followed, then more people would be better informed about the risks of COVID-19.
ReplyDelete3. I think that the best way to combat misinformation is to be better informed yourself. If you are better informed, you can help shut down people or sites that are distributing false information, because you have the facts. However, I do not think that choosing a side and having bias is spreading misinformation, but then the reader or viewer of the debate just has to look at both sides. I think that messing up the information and data is not helping to maintain a free and open debate about public issues, so I just think that those kinds of things should be gotten rid of. One problem with this is that the viewer needs to know which source to trust and they need to commit to choosing it.
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