INFODEMIC: A New Pandemic | By Deepika Bartwal

“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic”- WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Munich Security Conference, 15 February 2020.

Infodemic, a combination of two words- Information and Epidemic, which means a rapid spread of fake, hoax, and inaccurate stories and claims across the internet which is as detrimental as a pandemic. With a spurt in the Covid-19 pandemic, the Infodemic of misinformation grew frightfully. At a time when credible information is crucial for public health, fake news about the same is spreading even faster than the facts.

“The virus will be killed at a temperature of 30-35 degrees.”

“Hold your breath for over ten seconds to check if your lungs are healthy.”

“Drink alcohol and you'll be safe against the virus.”

“Second-wave in India became more dominant because of the 5G Rollout.”

These are some of the illustrations of pandemic-related outrageous false assertions circulating online.

Most of the false claims are primarily related to health misinformation because the times of crisis are the times for increasing the fake news and propaganda. People believe these false claims simply because it gives them hope and connects with their emotions because crises like Covid-19 are difficult to cure. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that we are not yet equipped to cope with an infodemic. However, Infodemic is not a new phenomenon. It's been a part of the media chronology long before social media came, since the generation of the printing press. It was prevalent even at the time of Ebola and the Spanish Flu. Infodemics have always existed but social media amplifies them more. Many international organizations are working to analyze the different aspects of Infodemic. For instance, The Reuters Institute at Oxford University has been looking at samples of fake news picked up by international fact-checkers. The research ended with a mind-boggling conclusion that around 60% of the fake information content involves recontextualizing and reframing the original facts.

Social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are the main breeding grounds for Infodemic. The origin of fake news that spreads through social media cannot be identified easily, since it spreads like a chain from one forward to another as they gain more traction on social media. The main reason for Infodemic is the absence of adequate legislation. There is no definite law to deal with such false claims. Unrestricted publication or broadcast of information in India flows from the fundamental right to freedom of expression as enshrined under Article 19 of the Constitution. These fake claims are extremely dangerous when they are considered by people to be true. They have a huge and far-reaching impact. But, at the same time, Several people also benefit from these false claims, by growing their influence online or selling fake cures and treatments to make money, or by driving a political agenda through misinformation.

There are several ways by which this pandemic of fake information can be contained. A system of fact-checking can help, wherein the fake news is debunked by pointing out errors like a mismatch, malicious editing, and misattribution. Here the Mainstream Media plays a very significant role in proving and asserting as to how they concluded that a viral message that claims to be true is fake.

MEASURES TAKEN BY DIFFERENT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AGAINST INFODEMIC

Many social media platforms have pledged to take stronger actions to prevent the spread of misinformation. Facebook and YouTube use algorithms to proactively eliminate fake news from their platforms. Also, WhatsApp has started to impose a maximum limit on forwarding messages, to restrict the spread of fake news. Educating the end-users, so that the consumers become well-aware of the information with the help of verification tools and authenticate the precision of information before sharing it. Individuals and communities can safeguard themselves against the outrageous effects of false claims through timely access to correct and reliable information. Another mechanism that is procreated by the government, concerns tracking the source and origin of suspicious information. This can work best with a public-private collaboration. Websites that are Independent fact-checkers play an important role in containing the dissemination of false information, they can work best as an assistant to the government. Many such websites are FactChecker.in, Factly, Newschecker.in, CovidGlobal Misinformation Dashboard.

INFODEMIC RESPONSE FRAMEWORK

Many international organizations are aiming to educate people about the threats, inceptions, and solutions of Infodemic. In April 2020, World Health Organization organized a two-day global consultation conference to “crowdsource ideas to form a novel COVID-19 infodemic response framework”. Several action areas were recommended for the framework-

Action Area 1: Strengthening the scanning, and verification of evidence and information, which will include publication and dissemination of scientific evidence. Establishing mechanisms within WHO to build sustainable potential for rapid knowledge translation, and support community platforms that make available rapid analysis of the uptake of WHO guidelines. Formulate tools for ranking the provenance, timeliness, and credibility of scientific sources to aid citizens, media, health authorities, and other scientists, so that the synopsis of these sources provides a kind of ‘evidence barometer.’

Action Area 2: Strengthening the understanding and explanation of what is known, fact-checking statements, and dealing with misinformation by engaging social media corporations and further locally prominent channels of information dissemination in facilitating access to trusted health information. Assuring that organizations with predominant and functioning websites do not register new domains for the pandemic because this makes it difficult to gain traction in search algorithms. Instead, organizations should dedicate pages or sections on their already subsisting websites to COVID-19 and Innovate to provide web readers with a ‘likelihood of fakeness’ assessment of information.

Action Area 3: Strengthening the amplification of messages and actions from trusted sources to individuals and communities that require information involving Health, digital health, and media literacy. Bringing in the use of communication channels to generate tools and direction on how to engage social media platforms, and use hashtags and other methods to disseminate official health information as effectively as possible.

Action Area 4: Strengthening the analysis of infodemics, including analysis of information flow, scrutinizing the acceptance of public health interventions, and analysis of factors affecting infodemics and behaviours at distinctive and population levels and creating new indicators for monitoring infodemic surveillance from the points of view of policymakers, the general public, health care workers, individuals, and particular communities.

Action Area 5: Strengthening strategies for infodemic management in health emergencies, using creative methods, such as hackathons, innovation challenges, and online brainstorms, to gather further ideas and innovations and crowdsource problem-solving in infodemic management. It could also include establishing national coordination mechanisms or task forces in the member states to harmonize all aspects of infodemic management, respond to misinformation, community engagement, and measure the impact of infodemic interventions.

CONCLUSION

The framework suggests that managing Infodemics incorporates identifying evidence, translating knowledge & science, amplifying actions, quantifying the impact, and coordination & governance. As per the WHO officials, these were first attempt guidelines and will need elaboration as new ideas arise. The new Information Technology Rules imposed by the Government of India will surely help in regularising the use and abuse of online platforms and holding them responsible for the content that is uploaded or shared on these sites by their users. The rules will also help in increasing the traceability of a message. On the ground level, if people start questioning a suspicious claim made on social media or online news sources before clicking the share button and make decisions not to pass things on and choosing more reliable, reputed, and authorized sources, the spread of Infodemic and its disastrous damages can be controlled. Immunization not only against the Pandemic but also against the Infodemic is required.