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:
3 comments:
I think that I do have access to reliable information as the internet serves both good and bad in these circumstances. Although there is a ton of misinformation going around, and you need to wade through it to get to the good information, there is technically good information available to anybody who has access to the internet. However, the spread and misinformation was not what tricked me, but rather the people I personally know and rumors they told me. At our school leading up to closure, there were people I know swearing up and down that they know someone who is infected with Covid-19 and I still don't know if any of them were correct. The rumors spread like wildfire and a similar thing is probably happening all over America if not all over the world. This is why it is very important that we all keep our wits about us, even when hearing rumors from a friend or a source like the government that you might usually trust. I think the best source right now for information is the CDC, and everything else you hear should be taken with a grain of salt.
There are a couple ways I assess the reliability of a source. The quickest way is to look at the name. If I'm hearing information from major news sources like the NY Times, CNN, NBC, and local news sources, I can trust that the information is mostly true and accurate. If I don't recognize the source, or I can't assess its reliability based on the name, I'll look for other sources to corroborate or contradict the information. I'm far less inclined to believe anything I see on social media or the things my friends tell me without checking with a reputable source.
I feel like so much of the news has been centered on COVID-19 and the effects, data, and research related to it. With so much information regarding one topic, I have heard many conflicting claims and ideas, especially in things like the number of cases, which is changing every day. I do my best to locate correct information by first looking at sources that I already trust, similar to what Jossie mentioned above. I also clink on the links embedded in the article to see where the data is coming from. Although there is no way to stop all misinformation from spreading, I believe that education is the first step in learning to find reliable information. As technology continues to advance, schools should teach their students (as Aragon has) how to identify valid sources and check the credibility and reliability of other ones. Also, social media sites have begun to label faulty posts with a little warning sign. I think this is a step in the right direction because it allows people the freedom to post what they want but also notifies the public of misinformation.
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