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COVID-19 Misinformation

global spread of COVID-19 has been spreading alongside the diffusion of misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding its origin, existence, severity, and efforts toward preventative measures such as social distancing, vaccination, hand washing, and face masks (Niemiec, 2020). The beliefs that perpetuate this misinformation have yielded substantive and undesirable outcomes that affect the efforts aimed at curbing the pandemic. According to Nelson et al. (2020), the growing spread of misinformation and disinformation surrounding COVID-19 is debilitating and wrecking the efforts aimed at countering the spread, severity, and impacts of the virus. The effects of misinformation spread directly interfere with measures that seek to check the spread of the virus and particularly the COVID-19 vaccine. Particularly in an error of increased information, misinformation spread has been significantly enabled by social media, blogs, news feeds, and emails. Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 typically arises from the underlying gaps in the research, news briefings, and the human quest to seek reason in an attempt to better understand and fill those gaps.

Social media is increasingly ubiquitous, enabling the rapid spread of information around the globe. Unlike the traditional media such as newspapers, televisions, and radio, which are highly restricted in the information they release to audiences, social media is more casual (Kulke, 2020). The casual nature of social media permits the spread of unverified information, leading to the rapid spread of misinformation. Social media users on popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, YouTube, and WhatsApp risk being fed by a tremendous pool of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Arguably, this is mainly due to the unguarded nature of social media platforms, which enable unverified forms of information to be dispersed on the internet (Geeng et al., 2020). The rapid spread of information, which is typically false is a particular concern to public health agencies such as the World Health Organization and Center for Disease and Prevention (CDC), whose work become increasingly challenging owing to misinformation on the internet.

Leading global health agencies such as WHO and CDC have launched information campaigns to offer wider audiences the correct and reliable information regarding COVID-19. The campaigns are aimed at providing social media users with the correct information to counter the growing misinformation on COVID-19 (Bursztyn et al., 2020). Major social media platforms have consequently embarked on content creation and news feeds that seek to set the record straight on matters regarding COVID-19. Recent and ongoing attempts to counter the COVID-19-related misinformation include filtering out or flagging false information on social media. Misinformation is a growing threat to the fight against COVID-19 and most platforms are currently employing censorship strategies to counter the spread of false information about the virus (Niemiec, 2020). Censorship on popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp is increasingly shaping social media use today. These platforms typically remove content, which go against their set community standards.

Owing to the challenges attributed to curbing misinformation on social media, governments and public health agencies consider conscious approaches of spreading the correct information to audiences. Public education has helped raise general awareness of the potential threats posed by misinformation. Dispensing the correct form of information to the public continues to broaden the knowledge scopes of audiences, leading to many people accepting vaccinations. Besides, the public is increasingly adopting various measures such as social distancing, face masks, and screenings as major efforts to counter the spread of the virus.

References

Bursztyn, L., Rao, A., Roth, C., & Yanagizawa-Drott, D. (2020). Misinformation during a pandemic. https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_202044.pdf

Geeng, C., Francisco, T., West, J., & Roesner, F. (2020). Social media COVID-19 misinformation interventions are viewed positively, but have limited impact. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_events/1582978/social_media_covid-19_misinformation_interventions_viewed_positively_but_have_limited_impact.pdf

Kulke, S. (2020). Social media contributes to misinformation about COVID-19. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/09/social-media-contributes-to-misinformation-about-covid-19/

Nelson, T., Kagan, N., Critchlow, C., Hillard, A., 7 Hsu, A. (2020). The danger of misinformation in the COVID-19 crisis. Mo Med., 117(6): 510–512.

Niemiec, E. (2020). COVID‐19 and misinformation: Is censorship of social media a remedy to the spread of medical misinformation? EMBO Rep., 21(11): e51420.