Fake News: How to Fight the Infodemic?
Fake news demotivate and reduces the efforts of the governments in their fight against Coronavirus, making their till date efforts completely worthless. People have also developed scepticism against governments and are questioning their efforts and shutdown, which are further fuelled by the spread of fake news.
WHO issued a statement on 22 January 2020 stating human-to-human transmission may be the probable reason behind the spread of coronavirus so fast. The organisation was still not clear whether it was the extent of human-to-human transmission and it considered it as too early to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Almost after six weeks of spreading COVID-19, on 30 January 2020, the WHO Director-General declared that the outbreak constitutes a PHEIC. The more hazardous sort of fake news was taking the rounds in media, especially in the social media, while the pandemic spread globally.
There have been many ongoing fake news, circulating around giving people bogus expectations, especially regarding the unproven cures and preventions of COVID-19, and the use of Cannabis to protect against it highlighting all over YouTube, which was later declared fake by the Sri Lanka Health Authority. The effect of fake news is severe than people think it to be. The poisonous fruit of Datura Plant was falsely said to prevent corona viruses as shown in TikTok, after which 12 people were hospitalised in Chittor District, Andhra Pradesh. Further, the Meghalaya police reported and responded to many ongoing fake news, which left people frozen. One of them was on shutdown of hotels, restaurants and resorts to be closed till 15 October 2020. Such news have a drastic physical and psychological impact on people, as the contemporary pandemic is most stressing to them in itself, with no clue of getting back at business soon. Fake news have not only targeted the citizen, but also manipulated the actions of government. Recently, there were news regarding the release of a four step protocol and procedure by WHO for lockdown in India to which the citizens have responded and researched the most.
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WHO further clarified in twitter stating that no such release of protocol and procedure has been done by the organisation.
Messages being circulated on social media as WHO protocol for lockdown are baseless and FAKE.
WHO does NOT have any protocols for lockdowns. @MoHFW_INDIA @PIB_India @UNinIndia— WHO South-East Asia (@WHOSEARO) April 5, 2020
Spread of fake news
The most common ways of news spreading around is social media, which is adversely used to spread wrong information. At times people do not even check the validity of news before forwarding it further on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, they use the false news to make videos on TikTok without understanding their social responsibility towards the audience. With just one click the news spread across millions on Facebook and WhatsApp. People are usually facilitated by the fake news, as they confirm their wrong beliefs and approve them to be right like gargling with salt water, inhaling hot steam and drinking lemon and ginger water, which were promoted on Facebook to prevent coronavirus. All these were further declined by WHO on the basis of no such evidence against such false claims. Moreover, the news many times originates with a mala fide intention to target a particular community on social media, to create hate and spread it across different sections of society. Much like an infection, the analysts state that after some time being presented to different strains of phoney news can wear out individuals’ resistance and make them progressively vulnerable.
The more occasions individuals are presented to a bit of phoney news, particularly in the event that it originates from an influential source, the almost certain they are to become convinced or contaminated. The purported “power law” of social life, a well-documented pattern in informal communities, holds that messages recreate most quickly on the off chance that they are focused at moderately little quantities of compelling individuals with huge followings.
Indian Government has been coordinating with the social media platforms to combat fake news, associating with Facebook and TikTok to remove all rumours regarding COVID-19, and keep track on the users providing misinformation regarding the pandemic, so that it can be used when required by the agency. Further Facebook has banned all ads claiming to be cures of virus as well as commercials like hand sanitisers, face masks, etc. to protect consumers from inflated prices. Moreover, Facebook has collaborated with Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and launched WhatsApp Chatbot which helps users find the validity of messages by connecting directly with the local fact-checker. WhatsApp has also amended its forwarding feature by indicating “forwarded” on the top of the message as well as limiting the forwards along with the interactive chat box initiated by WHO to provide people with right and accurate information.
Impact of fake news
As mentioned above, the contemporary pandemic is stressful giving rise to anxiety and depression among people. Rumours and fake news tremendously affect their business and health, leaving people hopeless. Fake news have severe impact on people sitting unemployed, bound by their responsibilities towards families and due bills. Those dealing with anxiety have issues in going out to groceries as they’re more scared to be infected, further leading to a panic attack.
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Fake news demotivate and reduce the efforts of the governments to fight against Corona virus, making their till date efforts completely worthless.
People have also developed scepticism against governments, and are questioning their efforts and shutdown, which are further fuelled by the spread of fake news. Hence, it is essential to stop the rise of fake news, especially during the times of pandemic and lockdown, along with proving people with right and accurate information to provide hope and solidarity among people.
The government has adopted measures provided under legislation. Many people have been arrested around the country for spreading fake news in the current situation. Section 66D of the Information and Technology Act and Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, are of very much use, which deals with false warnings around a disaster leading to panic as well as the applicability of Sections 505(1), Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897, for arresting those spreading fake news. Karnataka Government has taken steps to help citizens check the validity of news directly through collaborating with Check4spam to counter fake news along with asking the citizens to send news for verifications.
Steps taken by the government are helping, but not to an extent that can stop people from fake news. Hence, it is our social responsibility to take self-check measure before believing and forwarding the news like checking the source, timeline and authors reliability on the news. These small steps could make a big difference especially in difficult times like these as we’re all in this together. There is no doubt that fake news is a matter of serious concern when it comes to national security as well as the current pandemic situation. Artificial Intelligence can be a big leap in stopping the spread of fake news on a large scale, but there’s a long way ahead of us till then we will have to be more careful and help each other in stopping the menace of fake news from affecting us more than what they have done already.