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 spread of fake news

5

October

2020

5/5 (1) Social media networks allow us to be constantly connected with each other, share information with our followers and receive the latest news as it happens (Vinnakota, 2017). We have never been more connected than today. However, social media does not only connect, but also divide us. Google is not just a search machine and Facebook is not such a platform to see what other people are doing. Social media networks are designed to create addiction and manipulate our behaviour (Kennedy, 2020). The social media platforms are competing for consumer attention (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020). Their business model is to keep people engaged on the screen. The platforms are free for users, but the user’s attention is the product with is sold to advertising firms (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020).

One of the main issues of social media platforms is fake information. A study has shown that fake news on Twitter spread six times faster than real news (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018). “False news travels further, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in every category of information” (Stokel-Walker, 2018). The concept of fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has become a large problem in recent years due to the ease of spreading information via social media platforms (Alington et al., 2020). Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen how fast fake news are spreading and how many people believe in conspiracy theories. Therefore, it is important to be aware of false information and critically assess the authors and sources of the information (West, 2017).

This blog post is inspired by the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ by Jeff Orlowski. I highly recommend all of you to watch this documentary. It is very relevant not only to our studies but also for our daily life with social media. It made me realize how manipulative social media can be and how easily we can get addicted to it. After I watched this documentary, I deleted Instagram (however, it only lasted 3 days). Feel free to comment below and tell me what you think about the topic and how you felt after watching ‘The Social Dilemma’. My main takeaway from the series is that former tech leaders, who invented social media platforms, do not even allow their children use social media.

 

References:

Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological medicine, 1-7.

Orlowski, J. & Rhodes, L. (2020). The Social Dilemma. United States: Netflix.

Kennedy, M. (2020). Review: Put down that phone, urges doc ‘The Social Dilemma’. ABC News. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/review-put-phone-urges-doc-social-dilemma-72875929.

Stokel-Walker, C. (2018). Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter. New Scientist. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163226-fake-news-travels-six-times-faster-than-the-truth-on-twitter/#ixzz6Ztmr0kwg.

Vinnakota, R. (2017). How Social Media Divides Us. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/social-media-divides-us/.

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.

West, D. (2017). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Brookings. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/.

 

 

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