Fake News during Covid-19: Who is responsible?

7

October

2021

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Earlier this year, the EU Commission told tech giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft to generate monthly reports on their efforts to tackle fake news (Chee, 2021). The problem of fake news has become more serious ever since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, or as some like to call it: the Covid-19 infodemic. An infodemic refers to a disease outbreak during which too much information, including false or misleading information is being spread on both digital and physical environments (World Health Organization, 2021). This results in mistrust in health authorities and undermining of public health response. 

Covid-19 has indeed given rise to immense amounts of fake news being spread on social media platforms. A recent study shows that one in five people believe fake news about Covid-19 (De Bruin, 2021). With the alarming amounts of fake news being spread, imagine the alarming number of people misinterpreting fake news for real news. Misinterpretation or believing fake news on its own might not be harmful, but when such beliefs result in actions (e.g. unwillingness to take the vaccine), it can seriously harm the approach to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Therefore, tech giants must now share the data they have on how misinformation spreads and on the granular impact of their actions in EU countries (Chee, 2021). Companies like Google and Facebook also act on preventing fake news themselves through the use of fact checkers. During Covid-19, Facebook has removed 16 million pieces of content and added warnings to 167 million and Youtube (owned by Google) removed 850.000 videos, all due to ‘dangerous or misleading covid-19 medical information’ (Clarke, 2021). Additionally, Google has released an open fund for projects debunking vaccine misinformation, accepting applications from projects that want to broaden the audience of fact checks (Mantzarlis, 2021). 

It is understandable that governments and state organizations such as the EU Commission require action to tackle fake news from the platforms the fake news is being spread on. However, it is impossible for these platforms to fully stop the spread of fake news, even with the use of fact checkers and the sharing of data with governmental institutions. Therefore, some are saying that doctors must tackle fake news related to Covid-19. They would be able to stop the spread of false information by refuting misleading health information and providing appropriate sources to accompany their refutation (O’Connor, 2020). It is debatable whether this approach would work, therefore I would like to ask what you think. Whose responsibility is it to tackle fake news related to Covid-19? 

References

Chee, F. Y. (2021). EU tells Google, Facebook and Twitter to extend fake news watch, COVID-19 in focus. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-tech-fakenews-idUSKBN29X1R2

Clarke, L. (2021). Covid-19: Who fact checks health and science on Facebook? Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1170

De Bruin, B. (2021). New study shows: one in five people believe fake news about COVID-19. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.rug.nl/feb/news/current/new-study-shows-one-in-five-people-believe-fake-news-about-covid-19?lang=en

Mantzarlis, A. (2021). An open fund for projects debunking vaccine misinformation. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-news-initiative/open-fund-projects-debunking-vaccine-misinformation/

O’Connor, C. (2020). Going viral: doctors must tackle fake news in the covid-19 pandemic. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1587

World Health Organization. (2021). Infodemic. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.who.int/health-topics/infodemic/the-covid-19-infodemic#tab=tab_1

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The Break-Up of Ant’s Alipay – When Platforms Become Too Powerful

1

October

2021

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Imagine powerful tech companies such as Google knew about every single item that you have purchased, both offline and online, in your entire life. Now skip the imagination, because if you were to use an online payment platform your entire life, they would. 

As more and more people use online payment services for their own convenience, online payment platforms are fast gaining in popularity. One of such online payment platforms is Alipay. Alipay is a Chinese mobile and online payment platform that was created as the payment arm of the large Chinese eCommerce website called Taobao (Ant Group). With over 1 billion users, Alipay says they have created “an inclusive digital ecosystem accessible to everyone” (Alipay, n.d.). 

They make it sound great. Yet, there are concerns that Alipay is so dominant that no one can compete with them (Ovide, 2020). As a result, China decided to break up Alipay last month (Yu & McMorrow, 2021). To understand how Alipay can be ‘broken up’, it is important to first understand how Alipay operates. The image shows the revenue streams of Alipay (Cuofano, n.d.). As you can see, their revenues consist of escrow fees, also known as transaction fees, ancillary services and credit pay instalment fees. The latter refers to the highly lucrative lending business and is, not surprisingly, the part China wants to separate from Alipay.
In addition to separating Alipay’s lending business from its main business, officials have stated they want the separated business to have its own independent app. Notably, this would require Ant Group to turn over the user data that determines its lending decisions to a new credit scoring joint venture, which would be partly state-owned (Yu & McMorrow, 2021). The main reason being that big tech’s monopoly of power comes from their control of data, and China wants to end that. 

Though it might seem just to control a company that becomes ‘too’ powerful due to possession of user data, it feels unjust that a government can restrict this way of operating by obliging an online platform to be split-up and most importantly, hand over the data. 

This raises the modern dilemma on data: who is morally justified to take data ownership, and thus become powerful?

References
Alipay. (n.d.). Accessible digital payments for everyone. Retrieved from https://global.alipay.com/platform/site/ihome
Cuofano, G. (n.d.). How Does Alipay Make Money? The Alipay Business Model in a Nutshell. Retrieved from https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-alipay-make-money/
Ovide, S. (2020). Don’t Even Try Paying Cash in China. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/technology/alipay-china.html
Yu, S., & McMorrow, R. (2021). Beijing to break up Ant’s Alipay and force creation of separate loans app. Financial Times. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/01b7c7ca-71ad-4baa-bddf-a4d5e65c5d79

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