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Ill Advice: A Case Study in Facebook’s Failure to Tackle COVID-19 Disinformation

Aoife Gallagher, Macckenzie Hart, Ciarán O'Connor

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2021), 34 pp.

"Despite detailed policies on mis- and disinformation and promises to enforce them, social media platforms are failing to tackle prominent groups and individuals who spread false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines online. Using the World Doctors Alliance1 as a case study, a group that has spread var ... ious problematic, false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, ISD found that 78% of the group’s 1.2 million online followers are found on mainstream platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok) who claim to prohibit this kind of content. The Facebook pages of World Doctors Alliance members have a following of over 550,000 users, which increased by 13,215% between January 2020 and July 2021. Videos posted by these Facebook pages have been viewed more than 21.1 million times. These pages have accumulated a total of 5.77 million interactions since January 2020, with interaction rates increasing by 85% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the previous six months. Facebook posts mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members have attracted more than three million engagements on Facebook and are present in at least 46 different languages on the platform. ISD found that large proportions—often the majority—of the most engaged with content on Facebook mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members in English, Spanish, German and Arabic contained false, misleading or conspiratorial claims related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Organisations that are part of Facebook’s fact-checking program have debunked false claims made by the World Doctors Alliance 189 times since the beginning of the pandemic. Despite this extensive fact-checking effort, Facebook is failing to take decisive action on the group or its members. Facebook’s fact-checking program incorporates organisations from 115 countries, but there appear to be major gaps in fact-checking in non-English languages. ISD found minimal application of fact-checking labels across the four languages analysed, with lower application rates on posts in German, Spanish and Arabic than in English. Content that does contain fact-checking labels is still accumulating tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of engagements." (Key findings) more

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Misconceptions, Misinformation and Politics of COVID-19 on Social Media: A Multi-Level Analysis in Ghana

Philip Teg-Nefaah Tabong, Martin Segtub

Frontiers in Communication, volume 6, issue 613794 (2021), 13 pp.

"The study showed a changing pattern in the misconceptions and misinformation about COVID-19. Initially myths were largely on causes and vulnerability. It was widely speculated that black people had some immunity against COVID-19. Also, the condition was perceived to cause severe disease among the e ... more

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MENA Monitor: Arabic COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Online

Ciarán O'Connor, Moustafa Ayad

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2021), 19 pp.

"Conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the subsequent development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines are rampant across Arabic-language Facebook pages and groups. They are also linked to a larger network of anti-vaccination websites, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels across the web. Researchers f ... more

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Combating Disinformation in the Arab World. Case Study: The COVID-19 Pandemic

Noha Atef

Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ); Friedrich Naumann Foundation (2021), 43 pp.

"In this paper, ARIJ proposes the following recommendations which target the greater media community. This includes media institutions concerned with the press, unions, press unions and donors who support this venture. We maintain that disinformation is a product of a social and political environmen ... more

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Digital tools and strategies in COVID-19 infodemic response: Case studies and discussion

Roman Chestnov et al.

Geneva: ITU (2021), 60 pp.

"Digital technology, while an important enabler of many COVID-19 mitigation measures, has also contributed to the rise of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the pandemic. The circulation of rumours, conspiracy theories, false claims and misconceptions about the novel coronavirus has had a ... more

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Pacific Crises: COVID, Climate Emergency and West Papua

Philip Cass, David Robie (eds.)

Pacific Journalism Review, volume 27, issue 1-2 (2021), pp. 1-174

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WHO Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics

Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) (2021), xii, 53 pp.

"The five research streams are listed below. For each stream, three top research questions were identified, resulting in a list of 15 top priority research questions for the public health research agenda for infodemic management. Further, we listed for each subcategory a second tier of important res ... more

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Infodemia e COVID-19: A informação como instrumento contra os mitos

Ana Gabriela Ferreira, Débora Lima, Júlia Rocha

Artigo 19 Brasil (2021), 48 pp.

"O presente relatório propôs, através de uma análise de transparência passiva e ativa, um diagnóstico quanto à transparência e a garantia do direito de acesso à informação pública de saúde, em período sensível de calamidade no Brasil - a pandemia do novo coronavírus. O contexto de in ... fodemia somou-se aos crescentes entraves institucionais impostos pelo governo de Jair Bolsonaro, tornando quase impossível obter informações oficiais seguras, participar e monitorar as políticas públicas governamentais. Na pandemia de COVID-19, isso se ampliou e continua em curso, mais de um ano após, ainda que às custas de mais de 420 mil vidas perdidas. Muitos indícios denotam a intencionalidade das ações, como a afirmação recente de chefe da ANVISA17 sobre ter participado de reunião no Palácio do Planalto, em que se sugeriu modificar a bula da cloroquina para incluir possibilidade de seu uso contra a COVID-19, mesmo sendo este ato contrário a evidências científicas. Ainda que houvesse evidência contrária ao uso, houve ampla propaganda, pelo presidente da república, da cloroquina e de hidroxicloroquina como tratamentos para a infecção por coronavírus, levando a novas comorbidades. Se, por um lado, a importância do compartilhamento proativo de informações confiáveis e úteis para o eficiente enfrentamento à Covid-19 já tem sido reiterado por organizações nacionais e internacionais, a análise aqui presente mostra que as diversas formas de desinformação, incluindo o apagão de dados são, hoje, a regra no Brasil. O largo desrespeito aos prazos de resposta, a prorrogação indefinida para manifestações concernentes à pandemia e a banalização do sigilo18 são apenas uma parte pequena desses entraves - e não refletem a pressa que o contexto pandêmico exige sobre segurança acerca dos modos de prevenção, tratamento e contenção da doença. Para além disso, a propaganda massiva da desinformação vem sendo meio de afetação de milhares de pessoas no país que, possuindo menos acesso ao conhecimento científico produzido, confiam nas figuras de liderança que deveriam estar fazendo o papel de assegurar medidas de saúde. Foi possível constatar neste estudo um grave sintoma, face aos pedidos realizados. Da análise de amplitude de acesso, 75% dos pedidos tiveram retorno insuficiente." (Conclusões, página 41) more

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Silenced and Misinformed: Freedom of Expression in Danger During COVID-19

London: Amnesty International (2021), 38 pp.

"[...] governments have put up barriers to activities like reporting and sharing opinions and used the pandemic as a pretext to muzzle critical voices. Amnesty International is concerned that Covid-19 related restrictions are not just temporary measures but are part of an ongoing onslaught on human ... more

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Persuasive strategies in online health misinformation: A systematic review

Wei Peng, Sue Lim, Jingbo Meng

Information, Communication & Society, volume 26, issue 11 (2021), pp. 2131-2148

"A proliferation of a variety of health misinformation is present online, particularly during times of public health crisis. To combat online health misinformation, numerous studies have been conducted to taxonomize health misinformation or examine debunking strategies for various types of health mi ... more

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Myths and Misconceptions on Covid-19: ‘Congo Check’ and ‘Talato’ Verification Experiences

Fabíola Ortiz dos Santos

Frontiers in Communication, volume 6, issue 627214 (2021), 21 pp.

"This paper asks: How do fact-checkers combat/halt Covid-19 myths and misconceptions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic? How do they engage in social media networks toward sense-giving and sharing corrective information? It discusses two cases of online media projec ... more

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Six Ways to Incorporate Social Context and Trust in Infodemic Management

S. Ripoll, J. Cole, O. Tulloch, M. Schmidt-Sane, T. Hrynick

Brighton: Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) (2021), 5 pp.

"Building trust in public health authorities and epidemic response takes time and is an ongoing process. However, in the short term, mistrust can be mitigated by responding in contextually appropriate ways through meaningful community engagement: 1. Use social science to understand the socio-economi ... more

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Social Media and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Dilemma of Fake News Clutter Vs. Social Responsibility

Moez Ben Messaoud

Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, volume 14, issue 1 (2021), pp. 25-45

"This article examines the relationship between fake news and social media as increasingly important sources of news, at a time when mainstream media no longer have exclusive control over news production and dissemination. It has been evident that few media outlets and professionals tend to draw con ... flicting news about COVID-19 from social media feeds, which are largely produced by common citizens with mostly no journalism training. This pervasive use makes social media key sources to scores of media outlets for news, whether it is related to COVID-19 or public affairs issues, even though it is susceptible to torrents of credibility and accuracy issues. As a result, of the overwhelming spread of fake news on coronavirus, which is contributing to framing events from several angles, media professionals are now obliged to track and vet information circulating on social media. Due to the scale of disinformation spreading on the Web, it has become imperative that the credibility and accuracy of news is thoroughly verified. Media organizations have already been putting in place various mechanisms to monitor false news. This article will attempt to identify and assess these monitoring efforts in the Arab world. For this purpose, I have put together a list of Arab observatories launched on the internet in order to monitor fake news circulating in relation to COVID-19, and to discuss their methods of monitoring work, in the context of mobilization carried out by governments and many organizations such as the World Health Organization. This article is pinned down on social responsibility approach which helps pave the way the differentpropositions to combat fake news and avoid abuses in social media uses. This article proposes an evaluation of the monitoring initiative viaa- vis fake news and proposes a set of guidelines for improving the work of such monitoring bodies. Hence, this research reveals that social media outlets have diversified their goals to match the power of the conventional media in disseminating information and bringing up issues for debate. However, in the light of the framework of social responsibility, social media actors have to constantly develop a set of ethical practices to be observed by users, establish codes of conduct regulating content production, and lay down a code of integrity to assure accuracy in news and information transmission." (Abstract). more

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Media and the Coronavirus Pandemic in Africa (Part One)

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 13, issue 2 (2021), pp. 133-299

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“Fake News”, Religion, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

Rubal Kanozia, Ritu Arya

Media Asia, volume 48, issue 4 (2021), pp. 313-321

"Salali and Uysal (2020) found in their study that vaccine acceptance significantly increased when people believe in the natural origin of the virus. Therefore, mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories about how the virus started need to be debunked, especially in countries having high vaccine hes ... more

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The COVID-19 Story: Unmasking China's Global Strategy

Louisa Lim, Julia Bergin, Johan Lidberg

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) (2021), 7 pp.

"China has used Covid to benefit its global image through the activation of existing media dissemination channels overseas and the use of new tactics such as disinformation and misinformation. China’s largescale medical diplomacy campaign has also provided propaganda wins in many developing countr ... ies, burnishing Beijing’s image as a reliable partner. Anecdotal reports indicate that Beijing has stepped up its content offerings, in particular by tailoring content including disinformation for specific countries and translating state-run messages into local languages. In some countries, China was also seen as the purveyor of the most accurate information about the new coronavirus, showing its growing influence over global narratives. For Beijing, Covid diplomacy clearly offers another means through which it can exert its influence. This research shows that countries that are recipients of China’s Covid vaccine clearly have more positive coverage of China, but it cannot draw conclusions as to the factors behind that. This strategy has largely been acceptable to global journalists, who — judging by the results of our focus groups in three separate countries — do not perceive China’s advances as a threat at a national level. Such views are in part due to the incremental nature of the changes, the clumsiness of China’s propaganda effort and the irrelevance of much of the material provided to local audiences. However, the survey does reveal that when viewed globally, there does appear to be more concern about China’s influence, in particular in the Asia Pacific region. The survey indicates that the overall impact of Beijing’s outreach is a redrawing of the global media landscape — one story at a time, one country at a time — shifting the China coverage in a more positive direction. China is using a multi-pronged approach to redraw the information landscape to benefit its own global image. In 2020, Beijing effectively shut down journalistic access to China, through visa denials and freezes, partly driven by international border closures. This had the effect of creating a vacuum in China coverage, creating a demand for stories from China, which could then be filled with statesponsored content already available through content-sharing agreements." (Conclusions, page 7) more

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Media and the Coronavirus Pandemic in Africa (Part Two)

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 13, issue 3 (2021), pp. 305-490

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Happiness and surprise are associated with worse truth discernment of COVID-19 headlines among social media users in Nigeria

Leah R. Rosenweig, Bence Bago, Adam J. Berinsky, David G. Rand

Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, volume 2, issue 4 (2021), 37 pp.

"Do emotions we experience after reading headlines help us discern true from false information or cloud our judgement? Understanding whether emotions are associated with distinguishing truth from fiction and sharing information has implications for interventions designed to curb the spread of misinf ... more

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Community Radio Stations’ Production Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Kaifia Ancer Laskar, Biswadeep Bhattacharyya

Media Asia, volume 48, issue 4 (2021), pp. 243-257

"The COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown have made community radio broadcasting more important than before. Using case studies and interviews, we explored the kind of programming adopted by selected community radio (CR) stations in India during the pandemic and how they fight fake news. We ... more

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Fake News is Bad News: Hoaxes, Half-Truths and the Nature of Today's Journalism

Ján Visnovský, Jana Radosinská (eds.)

Intech Open (2021), 260 pp.

"The publication is focused on the ways fake news, disinformation, misinformation and hateful statements are spread across society, predominantly within the online environment. Its main ambition is to offer an interdisciplinary body of scholarly knowledge on fake news, disinformation and propaganda ... more