Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Please follow the guidelines issued by the WHO and your respective countries’ agencies and help in the effort to contain the spread of the Coronavirus.
It is always important to be able to detect fake news on the internet, as it can spread through social media like a virus. In the times of the Coronavirus, it is even more crucial though, as wrong information can lead to the further spread of the disease and fear-mongering can lead to panic. Social media is a common platform that enables its users to share opinions, personal experiences, perspectives with one another instantaneously, globally. It has played a paramount role during pandemics such as COVID and unveiled itself as a crucial means to communicate between the sources and the individuals. However, it also has become a place to disseminate misinformation and fake news rapidly. Additionally, it is difficult to identify which pages and media have credible health information. The most frequently accessed website is Google, and most Google search queries are all related to coronavirus, with keywords such as coronavirus tips, updates, symptoms, news, prevention. A quarter of videos viewed on YouTube had various misleading information, yet most of these videos reached millions of viewers globally.
In Venezuela, people received false WhatsApp messages stating, “Stay home, the UN will bring you food”. Immediately the UN released a press release denying the information. [17] In India, after the Tablighi Jamaat gathering, Muslims were blamed for spreading the virus, and eleven people were hospitalized after consuming a poisonous plant in Andhra’s Chittoor district after watching a TikTok video that claimed the plant to be a homemade remedy for COVID. Moreover, some information about COVID provided on the social media platform might be difficult to understand, while misleading claims from politicians, head of states, religious leaders, and commentaries based on the assumptions but not scientifically proven facts and evidence may lead to disaster and a massive surge in the risk of COVID in the population. (Source: Infodemic Monikers In Social Media During Covid Pandemic By Sharmistha Sharma)
For NGOs, it is important to be able to distinguish which kind of information is reliable and can be shared with beneficiaries and partners, and which is not. In times when beneficiaries look up to NGOs for guidance, they can use their role to support factual information as well.
The rules to detect fake news in the times of Corona are basically the same as always – but right now even more important to follow. To give you some guidance, we have put together some things that you should look out for.
Sometimes you see someone is sharing an article and you immediately click the share button, even without checking the website and reading the entire article because it sounds good. But this is a big mistake. First of all, headlines can be misleading, even in respected news outlets. If you just share the article based on the headline, you might be sharing information that you don’t necessarily want to share.
Secondly, you should always check if the news source you are sharing is a respected one. It is possible to publish basically anything on the internet today, so any blogger or interested person could write an article that is not necessarily based on the truth and share it on social media. While mistakes happen, bigger news organizations and newspapers usually have fact-checkers that make sure, their articles are true and based on real data.
It also helps to see where the article gets its information from.
It is just a quick click to share something on social media or to forward it through messenger services. Research has shown that we do it even quicker when the news confirms something that we have been suspecting anyway. But be careful. Just because you think something is true, news stories that confirm this are not necessarily. Put extra attention to the fact-checking in these cases, just to make sure.
It is almost impossible to fact check a meme, a status, or a picture – so the safest thing is to just not share them. You never know if the people took the words out of a scientific study or just came up with them because they want to heat up the discussion. Make this your rule: if it has no source, don’t share it. And remember – hearsay is not a source!
Chain letters go around a lot at the moment – people have time, try to connect with peers digitally, and many people are afraid. Don’t take part in these actions though. Some people might be affected negatively and get even more scared.
In these times that are traumatizing for many people, be even more careful about what you share on your social media and what you share with your peers. If you are not sure if something is based on facts, refrain from sharing it!
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Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
