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Jul 1, 2022 · Interestingly, the spread of fake news has spiked significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic [4,5], with a few examples including remedies involving the consumption of salty water, bleach or garlic, unverified news regarding lockdowns prompting panic buying and vaccine-related news causing fear among the citizens, and thus thwarting global ...
- Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: policy insights from ...
Despite their access to high-level official information,...
- An exploration of how fake news is taking over social media ...
The study concludes that the COVID‐19 infodemic is full of...
- Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: policy insights from ...
Sep 9, 2020 · Despite their access to high-level official information, even political leaders have shown vulnerability to the allure of fake news in the COVID-19 pandemic. An example is the promotion by US President Donald Trump of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine—a drug about which the scientific community lacked, at the time, full evidence of ...
- Kris Hartley, Minh Khuong Vu
- 10.1007/s11077-020-09405-z
- 2020
- Policy Sci. 2020; 53(4): 735-758.
Oct 22, 2020 · The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been accompanied by a large amount of misleading and false information about the virus, especially on social media. In this article, we explore the coronavirus “infodemic” and how behavioral scientists may seek to address this problem.
Jul 12, 2020 · The study concludes that the COVID‐19 infodemic is full of false claims, half backed conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific therapies, regarding the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, origin and spread of the virus. Fake news is pervasive in social media, putting public health at risk.
- Salman Bin Naeem, Rubina Bhatti, Aqsa Khan
- 10.1111/hir.12320
- 2020
- Health Info Libr J. 2021 Jun; 38(2): 143-149.
Jun 17, 2020 · Examples include claims that smelling sesame and other plant oils, breathing in steam or cleaning the nostrils with salty water can kill SARS-CoV-2 before it reaches the lungs. “The...
- No Filter
- Politics and Scams
- Spreading Agendas
- Dangerous Spread
- Flattening The Curve
- Gaining Trust
Researchers have been monitoring the flow of information online for years, and have a good sense of how unreliable rumours start and spread. Over the past 15 years, technology and shifting societal norms have removed many of the filters that were once placed on information, says Amil Khan, director of the communications agency Valent Projects in Lo...
As the pandemic shifted to the United States and Europe, false information increased, says Donovan. A sizeable part of the problem has been political. A briefing prepared for the European Parliament in April alleged that Russia and China are “driving parallel information campaigns, conveying the overall message that democratic state actors are fail...
Many of the falsehoods online don’t have obvious sources or intentions. Rather, they often begin with niche groups mobilizing around their favoured agendas. Neil Johnson, a physicist at George Washington University in Washington DC, has reported4COVID‑19 misinformation narratives taking shape among online communities of extremist and far-right ‘hat...
As misinformation grows, it sometimes becomes deadly. On Twitter in early March, technology entrepreneurs and investors shared a document prematurely extolling the benefits of chloroquine, an old malaria drug, as an antiviral against COVID‑19. The document, which claimed that the drug had produced favourable outcomes in China and South Korea, was w...
In March, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began to spread misinformation on social media — posting a video that falsely said hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment for COVID-19 — but was stopped in his tracks. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube took the unprecedented step of deleting posts from a head of state, on the grounds that they could c...
Efforts to raise the profile of good information, and slap a warning label on the bad, can only go so far, says DiResta. “If people think the WHO is anti-American, or Anthony Fauci is corrupt, or that Bill Gates is evil, then elevating an alternative source doesn’t do much — it just makes people think that platform is colluding with that source,” s...
- Philip Ball, Amy Maxmen
- 2020
Jan 7, 2021 · The global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been mirrored by diffusion of misinformation and conspiracy theories about its origins (such as 5G cellular networks) and the motivations of preventive measures like vaccination, social distancing, and face masks (for example, as a political ploy).
