COVID-19 Fact-checking Networks and Articles

[LeGenD]

ARTICLE # 1

Fact-checking networks fight coronavirus infodemic

By Jan Oledan, Julia Ilhardt, Giorgio Musto, Jacob N. Shapiro, June 25, 2020

Organizations around the world are fact-checking misinformation about the coronavirus. Credit: Bulletin.

Want protection against the coronavirus? Here’s a tip: As you leaf through the pages of a Bible, you will most likely find a single hair. Put this hair into a cup of water and drink it. That’s all you need to do to become immune to COVID-19. And perhaps you don’t need to worry in the first place. Maybe COVID-19 is not such a serious disease to begin with—there’s video footage, after all, of hospital patients dancing and laughing in face masks.

But before you reach for a glass of Bible hair or underestimate the coronavirus, know that these are just two examples of the many online COVID-19 whoppers that an international web of fact-checking organizations has found and debunked.

While physical responses to the ongoing pandemic—stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and lockdowns—have been effective in mitigating the spread of the virus in many countries, misinformation remains rampant online. The World Health Organization calls the situation an infodemic: a deluge of information that people face as they seek reliable guidance about the pandemic. Miracle cures, virus-related false conspiracy theories, and overly optimistic assessments of the pandemic situation have cropped up in seemingly every corner of the globe. But these days social media users and news consumers in countries ranging from Nepal to Syria to the Democratic Republic of Congo are better equipped to deal with the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation than they otherwise might have been. That’s in part thanks to the growth in recent years of an international network of fact-checking sites like Congo Check, which debunked both the dancing coronavirus patient story as well as the one about a hair-based cure for COVID-19.

For their part, Facebook and Twitter have been steadily taking COVID-19-related misinformation down or presenting users with links to fact-checks, after having been heavily criticized in the past over slow or ineffectual responses to disinformation. Facebook, for example, collaborates directly with several organizations within the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network. If you now visit Mao Zigabe’s Facebook post about the dancing coronavirus patients, you’ll find the video grayed out. A notice warns users that the post contains “[f]alse information [c]hecked by independent fact-checkers."

So what have these fact-checking websites, scattered across the globe, found? The Japanese site Netlab reported on chain messages (untraceable messages similar to chain mail from the days of postal mail that are spread online in an attempt to cause alarm, stoke panic, or scam recipients) that Japanese Red Cross officers were allegedly sending to warn of the inevitable collapse of the country’s health care system. In South Korea, AjuNews debunked false accusations that President Moon Jae-in was supporting a mask cartel comprising his cronies. Jordan’s Fatabyyano fact-checked the false claims spreading in Arabic-language social media spheres that Italian doctors were accusing the World Health Organization of outright denial of the coronavirus pandemic. Fact-checkers have called out hundreds of these claims since the pandemic began late last year.

Websites devoted to fact-checking are nothing new, of course. Earlier this century, Factcheck.org (established in 2003) and Politifact (2007), were founded to debunk false claims made by political leaders. By making it more costly for politicians to lie, these sites aimed to do nothing less than improve American politics—doing so by equipping the average citizen with the perspectives and tools to make informed decisions within the political system.

The same approach is being pursued in the ongoing pandemic, and many established sites have pivoted towards fact-checking coronavirus-related misinformation.

Some of the most prominent of these international fact-checking websites are extensions of existing media conglomerates. In January, the Agence France Presse website set up dedicated pages that focus specifically on coronavirus-related misinformation; in February, FactCheck Initiative Japan did the same, and in March, so did Maldita, a Spanish platform. These are just a few examples of such mainstream media coronavirus fact-checking sites; several grassroots organizations fact-check COVID-19 misinformation, as well. The latter are frequently citizen-led and rely on volunteer networks and groups of independent journalists to contribute fact-checks.

Outrageous claims. Across the globe, fairly sophisticated tools have been used to debunk misinformation, with a fair amount of success. In war-torn Syria, Verify-Sy uses forensic media tools such as reverse photo searches to monitor media of “various political and religious background(s), in order to verify it and correct it.” Verify-Sy recently debunked a viral post on Facebook and Twitter that purportedly showed a COVID-19 positive woman wearing personal protective equipment while she cradled a cancer-stricken infant. The photo was actually from 1985. In India, Pankaj Jain, a Mumbai businessman, started Social Media Hoax Slayer to deal with what he called “various lies, pranks, [and] rumors forwarded” on WhatsApp. The website used a video analysis tool to fact-check a claim on social media that a bank branch’s employees had all tested positive for COVID-19 after one had gone out and bought liquor for the group, an example of disinformation that spread as India was coming out of a lockdown and once again allowing, for instance, liquor sales.

Larger players, in particular the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, are helping to build global fact-checking capacity. Poynter hosts the International Fact-Checking Network, and supports various fact-checking initiatives around the world, providing them with training and publicity and generally encouraging volunteers (so-called netizens) to contribute to fact-checking projects. Region-specific websites that are part of the network, such as AfricaCheck, South Asia Check, and Latam Chequea, provide localized support and training. The groups have to follow a code of principles: a commitment to non-partisanship, fairness, and standards of transparency about sources, funding and organization, as well as an open and honest corrections policy.

Since March, we, along with several college and graduate students at Princeton and other universities, have been cataloguing COVID-19 disinformation narratives in countries around the world. Team members have diverse language skills that allow them to read fact-checks from various countries. So far we’ve tallied some 1,401 narratives. In every country we looked for misinformation, we found local organizations central to revealing falsehoods—including in countries as widely separated as Jordan (Fatabyyano and the state-sponsored Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor AKEED), Nepal (Nepal Fact Check), and Germany (CORRECTIV). Collectively, these organizations make it all-but-impossible for blatant falsehoods to go unchecked—at least once they hit a larger audience.

AKEED, for example, reported distorted photos and misattributed video clips—such as one of lions roaming streets in Russia to enforce a nationwide curfew. Nepal Fact Check debunked a story on a news website in Nepal about a pastor in Kenya telling fellow church-goers to drink Dettol, an anti-septic disinfectant, to get rid of the virus. CORRECTIV fact-checked a ludicrous claim that criminals in Germany were distributing free face masks laced with narcotics to exploit and rob citizens who fell prey to their trap. Some bogus COVID-19 claims are of an even more serious variety; some, for instance, target minorities within a country, or deal in virus-related conspiracy theories that could impact international relations. Fact-checking websites proved useful in disputing these claims—some of which, while outlandish, were just believable enough to be mistaken as true.

How effective is fact-checking? The evidence is mixed. In one set of experiments, 60 percent of subjects reported correct information after being shown a fact-check. On the other hand, after an influential study appeared in 2010 by political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, many researchers believed fact-checks caused a so-called backfire effect where the corrections simply reinforced incorrect beliefs. Subsequent studies, though, have largely shown fact-checking can work. How the corrections are delivered appears to matter a lot; if the checks come from what the subject considers to be a credible source and the misinformation is debunked early, the better. Convincing people with strong beliefs, however, is probably a quixotic task.

There is good news when it comes to COVID-19: Claims are easy to debunk once there is enough attention. Scholars and nongovernmental organizations can use the rich base of readily available evidence and compiled data to understand coronavirus misinformation and the evolution of stories. Researchers can pull phrases from fact-checks that may enable further study on the spread and impact of COVID-19 disinformation. Most importantly, internet platforms and governments can leverage this robust ecosystem of fact-checking websites to moderate, down rank, and discourage sharing of misinformation. The strength of the ecosystem is obvious. We should not forget the broader lesson here; there is a rich grassroots community around the world which values truth, and is working hard to expose misinformation.

It’s a community can help us all do better at managing future infodemics.

LINK: https://thebulletin.org/2020/06/fact-checking-networks-fight-coronavirus-infodemic/2

 

[LeGenD]

ARTICLE # 2

A jet ski vacation during the coronavirus lockdown? Online liars want to make you mad at politicians

By Giorgio Musto, Kamya Yadav, Audrey Yan, Jan Oledan, Jacob N. Shapiro, July 13, 2020

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted a message on Twitter after being discharged from the hospital. A fake Twitter account had earlier spread the false news that the prime minister had died after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Credit: Twitter.

In April, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson got so sick from COVID-19 that his father said he thought his son “almost took one for the team.” After Johnson was hospitalized with a fever and other symptoms, a seemingly trusted media source published some shocking news: the prime minister had died. At first-glance, the tweet appeared to be from the BBC’s breaking news team.

Alas, @BBCbreaki is not the venerable public media network’s breaking news feed; that would be @BBCBreaking. Johnson pulled through and was discharged from the hospital one week after being admitted. Politicians like the prime minister, however, will likely continue to be the target of COVID-19-related misinformation, victims of the so-called information pandemic, or infodemic, that has spread as far and wide as the coronavirus itself and shows no signs of abating any time soon.

We already know coronavirus is affecting the nuts and bolts of democracy, that is, real-world elections. Staging an election runs the risk of exacerbating disease transmission as people line up to vote in person or election workers interact with voters. By mid-June, the nonprofit International Foundation for Electoral Systems recorded 106 postponed election events in 61 countries and eight territories because of COVID-19. With countries like the United States slated to hold consequential elections this year, online COVID-19 misinformation will likely continue to add another layer of uncertainty.

Since March, as part of a Princeton University-run project, we’ve tracked the COVID-19-related misinformation narratives that have been spreading in countries around the world. At this point, we’ve documented almost 370 narratives that have clear political motives or implications. In some cases, these narratives can bolster or discredit specific political or cultural figures. Other times they appear to undermine specific institutions and groups in society.

While we often don’t know who is responsible for politically relevant coronavirus misinformation like the hoax about Johnson dying, which was retweeted hundreds of times before Twitter deleted the fake BBC account, online political influence campaigns, including those perpetrated by governments, are becoming a widespread phenomenon. That’s one conclusion we’ve drawn from another set of projects we are running at Princeton’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, in which we’ve systematically tracked and classified foreign influence efforts. We identified 53 campaigns where governments targeted 23 countries with misinformation, propaganda, and politically divisive content between 2013 to 2018, and recently finished data collection on dozens more from 2019 and 2020.

During an election in Wisconsin on April 7, voters and poll workers took precuations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Credit: Spc. Emma Anderson/Wisconsin National Guard. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Disinformation during election season. Coinciding as it does with important elections, the pandemic is proving to be great fodder for politically motivated misinformation on and off line. In the United States, the narratives have focused on domestic politics and politicians, as well as on foreign affairs. A prominent strand of misinformation popular among supporters of President Donald Trump positions COVID-19 as a plotline in a deep-state conspiracy: a Democratic-party ploy, along with this year’s impeachment hearings, to discredit the president. Trump’s son Eric Trump, offered up a version of this false narrative on Fox News in May when he said social distancing measures were really part of a plot to harm his father’s chances in November’s election, after which, he said, the virus would “magically all of a sudden go away.”

As states have been reopening from lockdown, misinformation on emergency responses to the virus has cropped up on social media, frequently in posts targeting Democratic politicians. Democratic governors have been seen as putting in place stricter anti-epidemic policies than their Republican counterparts, such the governor of Georgia, who shut down the state’s economy later and reopened it earlier than many other states, or the governors of Texas and Arizona, who at one point moved to limit the ability of municipalities to require face masks in public

In a May Facebook post, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a California Democrat, was falsely blamed for breaking his own lockdown measures for a vacation in Montana. The post was liked and shared thousands of times. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who saw her national profile rise during the pandemic as she imposed stringent lockdown measures in her hard-hit state, was falsely accused on Facebook of opening up Traverse City for an open house held by her daughter. One post was shared at least 4,000 times.

The image on the left is an example of a Facebook post falsely alleging that the pandemic is a Democratic-plot. On the right is a post falsely accusing Michigan Gov. Christine Whitmer, a Democrat, of violating her own lockdown measures for personal reasons. Credit: Facebook.

Another prominent line of COVID-19 misinformation in the United States has been to paint the coronavirus as a bio-weapons plot. This narrative may represent an attempt to shift the blame for the pandemic elsewhere, namely to China. That’s a goal that Trump, who has faced withering criticism for his administration’s handling of the pandemic, has demonstrated he shares many times, recently, for example, calling the virus the “kung flu.” The misinformation narratives in many countries--including China, where one prominent official for a time promoted the false idea that the US military had brought the virus to Wuhan--are shaped by previous and ongoing societal and geopolitical disputes.

Political misinformation about the virus isn’t limited to the United States.

The electoral dimensions of coronavirus misinformation were hard to miss in France during the run-up to a recent round of local elections on June 28. In the French system, local elections are an important factor in determining the country’s political equilibrium. In fact, major parties, including President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique en Marche party and far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, are already looking forward to the next presidential election in 2022.

The French government imposed a lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus in mid-March and misinformation targeting the government and its handling of the emergency followed closely. Posts from March on Twitter and Facebook, for instance, suggested that Macron’s government was part of a sinister plot. The former French health minister, the posts say, had banned the over-the-counter sale of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven therapy for COVID-19 in January, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic gained steam. One Facebook post reportedly compared the ban to genocide, according to the French newspaper Le Monde. The government’s decision to ban over-the-counter sales of the politically fraught drug was actually made last November, well before China first reported coronavirus cases, according to Le Monde.

Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron were targets of misinformation on a more personal level. While the country was under lockdown, they were falsely accused of having enjoyed jet skiing in the waters of the Mediterranean. The First Lady was even accused of using a government helicopter to send her daughter, allegedly infected with the new coronavirus, to Marseille to be cured by Didier Raoult, a researcher known for his contested claims on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

In the Philippines, while the next presidential election isn’t until 2022, COVID-19-related misinformation is coming at a particularly perilous time for the island nation’s democracy. Much of it serves to boost President Rodrigo Duterte’s standing or diminish that of his opponents. Since his election in 2016, Duterte has waged a bloody war on the drug trade that has led to the deaths of 12,000 Filipinos, mainly poor urbanites, according to Human Rights Watch. Duterte has frequently been accused of harboring authoritarian tendencies; he was featured, for instance, in a Time Magazine cover story about the “strongmen era.” The politically motivated COVID-19 misinformation spreading online in the Philippines is happening at what could be a crucial inflection point for democracy there. The administration recently shut down the longest running media conglomerate and the legislature could soon pass a controversial anti-terror bill with a blurry definition of “terrorism.”

Several social media posts praising Duterte’s response to the pandemic have included fabricated photos with misattributed quotes from world leaders such as Queen Elizabeth and even celebrities like Jimmy Fallon. There’s the Facebook post of Trump asking Duterte for help in dealing with the coronavirus crisis, something the US president hasn’t done. Another Facebook post that falsely claimed opposition party senators didn’t support a coronavirus relief package was shared over 10,000 times, according to the Filipino news site Rappler. Yet another post falsely attributed a quote to Vice President Leni Robredo that suggested she opposed the social distancing measures designed to control the spread of COVID-19. (In the Philippines, the vice president is elected separately from the president and Robredo represents a different party from Duterte, with whom she has clashed.)

Misinformation, politics, and racism. Racist or xenophobic COVID-19 misinformation has frequently tied the pandemic to liberal political policies and parties. In Germany the narratives are homegrown, and a prominent source of such stories are far-right politicians and parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The targets of the stories vary from opposition parties to the minority Muslim population in the country.

There have been fabricated images depicting members of the ruling Christian Democratic Union flouting their own social distancing policies as well as wildly inaccurate theories that Chancellor Angela Merkel is hiding in a bunker in Paraguay, never to return. AfD party members have also criticized safety measures to contain the spread of the virus, claiming that the government was intentionally exaggerating the severity of the crisis.

At the same time, prejudice against Muslims in Germany is deeply entrenched, according to research reported on by the Daily Sabah, an English-language newspaper in Turkey. That’s also reflected by the rapid growth of the anti-immigrant AfD party. In a profile of the party in the German public media outlet DW, AfD is described as seeking to seal the European Union’s borders and implement identity checks in Germany. It’s concerned about the so-called Islamification of the country. Merkel, by contrast, has been seen as welcoming to migrants fleeing from countries such as Syria. Coronavirus-related misinformation narratives are seeking to raise suspicions about the country’s Muslim population. One narrative circulated on social media claimed, for instance, that the government would ease social distancing measures to allow large social gatherings during Ramadan, a special dispensation for Muslims. Another narrative claimed that cities are using coronavirus safety measures as a guise to secretly sneak asylum seekers into Germany.

Anti-Islam narratives have been adapted to local contexts. In India, social media posters have accused Muslim populations, without evidence, of deliberately spreading coronavirus in predominantly Hindu India.

Muslims have faced increasing discrimination in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party has risen to prominence. Last year, the government passed what many deemed an anti-Muslim citizenship law, leading to huge protests in the capital Delhi and elsewhere. Now anti-Muslim prejudice is being incorporated in the COVID-19 misinformation spreading online.

In April, after several members of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Sunni Muslim missionary movement in India, tested positive for coronavirus, Boom, an Indian fact-checking organization, reported on viral Facebook posts which repurposed an old video of members of India’s Bohra Muslim community cleaning food leftovers from a plate. In the viral posts, the video is described as showing Muslim men licking utensils to spread the coronavirus.

One Twitter hashtag that went viral earlier in the pandemic sums up the anti-Muslim flavor of Indian coronavirus misinformation: #CoronaJihad. Social media users, popular media outlets, and politicians alike have fanned the fake news fire, blaming Muslims for the spike in cases. From accusations that Muslims are spitting on and licking objects or breaking lockdowns and not following social distancing norms, the Muslim community has borne the brunt of disinformation in India.

The coronavirus has been a globally disruptive event. Considering the toll the disease is exacting in countries around the world, a price measured in lives lost, families torn apart, and economic prospects crushed, one shudders to think about how things could possibly be worse. The COVID-19 misinformation cropping up on smartphones, computers, and television screens the world over could foreshadow dire consequences, ones perhaps harder to quantify. It could erode democracy in places like the Philippines, lead to rising xenophobia in Germany, or weaken confidence in elections in the United States.

If those things happen, the virus will have done more than sicken us; it will have reshaped our world for the worse.

LINK: https://thebulletin.org/2020/07/fact-checking-networks-fight-coronavirus-infodemic-copy/

 

[LeGenD]

ARTICLE # 3

Profiting from panic: the bizarre bogus cures and scams of the coronavirus era

By Alaa Ghoneim, Saiful Salihudin, Isra Thange, Anne Wen, Jan Oledan, Jacob N. Shapiro, July 24, 2020

Credit: Matt Field/Pixabay

As the world awaits a scientifically proven treatment for COVID-19 alternative and evidence-free remedies such as pure vodka in Fiji or dried fish in Egypt have been circulating online. Since March, we have been cataloguing the various misinformation narratives around the coronavirus pandemic and have found more than 243 distinct storylines about false cures, preventative measures, and diagnostic procedures. This misinformation involves promoting existing drugs, alternative medicinal practices, and everyday food items as treatments for coronavirus. In many cases, companies or individuals have even tried to profit off of naïve individuals by selling bogus cures and making exaggerated claims about their products.

Old drugs new uses. One of the most common threads of misinformation around coronavirus treatments and preventative measures involves the repurposing of existing medical treatments—whether for malaria, bacterial infections, or pain relief. Common drugs such as aspirin as well as prescription drugs such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin have been touted without evidence or with limited evidence as effective against COVID-19.

In the case of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, two related anti-malarial medicines, the drugs’ potential as treatments for the coronavirus may have once been a source of hope for many, even as strong evidence of their effectiveness was lacking. Despite the efforts of fact-checkers, we saw the narratives touting chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine as cures for COVID-19 appear in many countries from as early as March to the end of May. A common format of these stories involved reputable national scientists emphasizing the success of clinical trials. For example, even after experts began to raise serious questions about influential French research that purported to show that hydroxychloroquine was effective, a well-known news site in Pakistan published an interview with a scientist who discussed the supposedly successful use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a COVID-19 treatment in France.

Myriad other medications have been recommended as treatments for COVID-19. In Italy, a pharmacist claimed that Avigan, an antiviral medication, was being used in Japan as a cure and accused Italian pharmaceutical companies of concealing the potential treatment for profit reasons. This claim was debunked based on the drug’s limited success. In other countries a wide range of unsubstantiated treatments have been promoted, including: the antiseptic Betadine (Tunisia) and even supposedly antibiotic aspirin (Philippines and Germany). The final claim is ludicrous on two fronts: COVID-19 is a viral disease, not a bacterial illness treatable by antibiotics, and aspirin, of course, is not an antibiotic. Yet, in India, aspirin mixed with home remedy ingredients such as lemon juice and honey has been hailed as a cure in a set of viral WhatsApp and Facebook messages.

Some fake cures have repurposed alternative and non-Western medicinal practice. Homeopathic treatments, in particular the remedy Arsenicum Album 30, have been promoted in countries including the United States, Pakistan, and India. In homeopathy (itself a disputed practice), it is used to treat respiratory ailments like coughs or asthma, but experts in India, where it has been promoted by a government agency and widely distributed, say there is little evidence of its effectiveness against the coronavirus. Some political leaders are guilty of promoting these false cures. In India and Nepal, some politicians have even been falsely claiming on Twitter that homeopathy cured the United Kingdom’s Prince Charles. Other false treatments circulating in various countries online include Artemisia, a genus comprising medicinal herbs such as wormwood, sagebrush, and tarragon (Guinea), Agarwood (China), and Neem leaves (Malaysia, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire).

Fake cures to eat, drink, and absorb. Everyday food items and essential vitamins with no scientifically proven therapeutic or preventative effect against the coronavirus have become popular home remedies as well. In China and Japan social media misinformation led to increased purchases of fruits, yogurts, and seasoned food, such as natto, a common fermented bean dish, driving up sales and triggering panic as supermarkets rushed to restock shelves. In China rumors that foods such as garlic, onion, ginger, and chili were useful in preventing coronavirus infection were spreading as of early March. According to The Kathmandu Post, a local government agency in Nepal, while wisely urging people to stay out of crowds, also recommended they use turmeric and garlic to inhibit COVID-19. In the Middle East and North Africa consuming honey, herbal teas, and Vitamin C rich foods was also encouraged by experts in herbal medicine.

Several dubious liquid concoctions have also been rumored to cure COVID-19. Israelis, according to one fake cure that circulated on Facebook, don’t worry too much about COVID-19 because they drink a lemon and baking soda tea each night. The concoction will “keep you alkaline all night,” according to one Facebook poster. In Iran, camel’s urine , milk with honey, and olive oil have been touted as cures. Through social media, rumors in one geographic region spread to countries far away; the bogus lemon and baking soda tea cure spread in both India and Israel.

And there is plenty of misinformation about other factors such as lifestyle practices or clothing said to be effective against the spread of coronavirus. Congo Check, a fact-checking organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reported on messages spread on Facebook and WhatsApp that falsely claimed that sunbathing could cure COVID-19. While sunlight may kill the virus outside the body, medical experts say it won’t cure a coronavirus infection. In the United States, President Donald Trump was a chief purveyor of this sort of misinformation when in April he suggested that somehow getting UV light into the body could be effective against COVID-19. Experts, including the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection, have warned people against exposing themselves to UV light devices meant for medical or industrial disinfection. Meanwhile, in South Korea and China recommendations to wear specific items to prevent catching the virus, such as anti-static clothing and special protective necklaces circulated online.

Pandemic profiteers. People have long attempted to profit from disaster. After Hurricane Katrina and more recently after Hurricane Harvey there were reports of phishing scams, criminals soliciting donations for non-existent charities, and other frauds. So, what makes the current coronavirus pandemic different? These natural disasters were one-off, geographically concentrated events. The global spread of COVID-19 provides a common topic around the world for those seeking to profit off of misinformation.

The COVID-19 crisis offers opportunities for criminals to profit through fraudulent schemes and products. Scammers have been using the pandemic to lure unaware individuals into disclosing their personal information. Some phishing schemes have even involved the promise of medical products. In China, scams about an application to purchase face masks, were debunked by the authorities. A website in South Korea that falsely advertised a free vaccine from the United States was taken down. In addition to the schemes to steal information, other plots involve selling fake cures. In the United States, some people have been promising COVID-19 cures for profit, far-right celebrity radio host Alex Jones was pitching a "nano-silver" toothpaste,” for example. Multiple sellers on Amazon, have advertised unverified remedies including vitamins, herbal supplements, and even prayer books to end COVID-19.

Apart from misguided entrepreneurship from conniving individuals, opportunistic firms have also been engaging in fraudulent practices. In March, despite rising coronavirus cases, a German beer company promoted a beer festival, claiming that one of the beers can act as a form of oral vaccine. In South Korea, a company exaggerated claims that a car air purifier they produce destroyed 99 percent of bacteria, including COVID-19, this despite the fact that the coronavirus is not a bacterium. Another firm sold a line of deodorant with promised but unproven virus killing effects.

The consequences of such widespread misinformation that repurposes existing medical treatments, alternative medicines, lifestyle practices, and foods as treatments or preventative measures relevant to the coronavirus are threefold. First, it creates a sense of false hope, undermining the severity of the pandemic. Second, many of the claims are not backed by scientific evidence, and thus may lead individuals to take risky actions in the mistaken belief that their baking soda tea or sunbathing habits will protect them. And finally, the fact that these treatments may sound legitimate—in that they reference real or familiar medications or come from trusted peers on social media—means that they could encourage individuals to medicate at home and avoid professional help when experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus.

The desperation many people have for a cure or treatment for COVID-19 is understandable. In the United States, for example, there isn’t yet a fully-approved drug to treat the deadly disease. But in the case of the false cures being promoted online, something is almost certainly not better than nothing.

LINK: https://thebulletin.org/2020/07/pro...bogus-cures-and-scams-of-the-coronavirus-era/

 

[LeGenD]

ARTICLE # 4

Coronavirus disinformation adds conspiratorial fuel to a volatile Middle East

By Samikshya Siwakoti, Jacob N. Shapiro, Isra Thange, Alaa Ghoneim, September 7, 2020

A Facebook post falsely claims that Swiss troops sang to Egyptians in a plea for masks. MISBAR, an independent Arabic fact-checking platform, reported the video was actually of Danish soldiers singing and was shot before the pandemic. Screenshot: Facebook.

If some sources in the Middle East and North Africa are to be believed, China has declared nuclear war on the United States as retaliation for the latter creating the coronavirus to destroy the Chinese economy. Other equally dubious sources could lead a person to believe that 5G technology is responsible for the virus, or that COVID-19 spreads the most in countries located on the 40th parallel north.

When the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the region in late January, many Middle Eastern and North African governments responded quickly and decisively to the pandemic by instituting lockdowns and other measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Yet, as part of a Princeton University project to track COVID-19 disinformation narratives, we can say these physical containment measures have done little to contain the spread of misinformation.

Misinformation has been a part of political life in the Middle East and North Africa for years; the coronavirus era has proved no exception. In the past eight months, we recorded 403 independent COVID-19 misinformation narratives in the region. These narratives, which represent general storylines which then get repeated in tweets, posts, or online articles, make up a little over 16 percent of the 2,471 storylines our project has collected from countries around the world so far.

The sources of misinformation—ranging from social media users to heads of state—painted either a bleaker picture than is actually warranted by the facts or gave false hope that the containment and eradication of the virus was at hand.

On the bleak side of the spectrum: In Algeria and the Palestinian territories, fake news on social media suggested that some cities or jurisdictions had extended a lockdown. In Egypt, false rumors claimed that newspaper presses were stopped and schools were turned into field hospitals. Again in Algeria, social media users falsely claimed that the state had instituted a moratorium on marriages. In the UAE, social media users falsely claimed that malls and dressing rooms were shuttered due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Over the summer, celebrities in the region were allegedly testing positive for or dying from the coronavirus with alarming frequency. But Egyptian singers Hany Shaker and Tamer Hosny, Iraqi actress Inaam Al-Rubaii, and Algerian singer Cheb Khaled have all denied rumors about their health, countering misinformation about them.

Regular people weren’t spared, either. In Bahrain, one false story alleged that more than 70 delivery drivers had tested positive for the virus. In Egypt rumors spread on social media that students were getting infected during school exams. Some stories even falsely claimed that students sitting for thanawaya a’mma exams, or the national college entrance exams, were passing out or dying in testing rooms.

On the false hope side of the ledger, other narratives downplayed the severity of the virus and declared that life was finally returning to normal. In the early months of the pandemic, some people falsely claimed that certain drugs, such as Viagra, were effective against the virus or spread false news about the imminent discovery of a vaccine. One false story spread on Facebook claimed that a treatment for the virus was already available in all Iraqi pharmacies. Another rumor in Egypt claimed that the virus had already mutated into a weaker form. Common too, were false claims that emergency response measures were being relaxed. In Egypt and Algeria, wedding venues would allegedly open. In Saudi Arabia, international flights were set to resume. Tunisia would soon lift its quarantine.

While certainly optimistic, none of these rumors were true.

Another trend we’ve seen in the region is the widespread portrayal of countries as being exceptionally successful in combating COVID-19.

Peddlers of false information often proclaimed their country had a superior national response. In Syria, for example, a Facebook post claimed that a child prodigy discovered a cure for COVID-19. Posts in Egypt commended the generosity of Egyptians through untrue claims that many recovered citizens had donated their plasma to treat others. One story placed the number of alleged donors at 200,000, and another placed the number even higher at 600,000—with both figures being far higher than the roughly 100,000 COVID-19 cases that Egypt has recorded.

A second form of exceptionalism narratives celebrates the superiority of the state, its response to COVID-19, and its domestic health care workers, heaping more praise than is justified by the facts. In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani delivered a speech claiming that his country was responding better to the pandemic than Europe was, despite dealing with international sanctions. In fact, Iran has logged over 378,000 infections, a worse figure than in many European countries.

While false claims often circulate on social media, in Palestinian territories several local and regional news sites falsely reported that an Israeli TV channel admitted that health officials in Gaza were managing the outbreak better than the Israeli government. In Tunisia, a video circulating on social media eventually made it to the news outlet Anahwa.com. It was accompanied by the false claim that Tunisia had defeated the virus. According to the Jordanian fact-checking site Fatabyyano, however, the video showed Italian doctors and nurses celebrating the closure of a COVID-19 hospital wing.

A common trope in COVID-19 misinformation narratives appears to be that other countries are praising a given country's response. Facebook users in Tunisia falsely claimed that the World Health Organization had declared their country to have the best COVID-19 response in Africa, while Twitter users in Saudi Arabia falsely claimed that the organization had praised their country’s digital architecture to be the most successful in fighting the virus.

The trend of fabricated external praise is most common in Egypt, where we recorded stories ranging from the claim that a French magazine had praised President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for his virus response to tales that the Swiss army was singing praises of Egypt out of desire for medical supplies as well as claims that Italians were thanking Egypt for sending them medical help. In effect, citing an external source allows individuals and states to make false, self-congratulatory claims while lending credibility to the misinformation being circulated.

State officials, political actors, or official media sources accounted for approximately 14 percent of the narratives we’ve found in the region.

Narratives centered around national governments were particularly prominent among the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, countries where the state is heavily involved in citizens’ political and economic lives. Much of the misinformation revolving around the state appears to have partisan motives. Pro-regime activists in Syria circulated the false claim that President Bashar al-Assad is personally in a lab searching for a cure to COVID-19, an attempt to increase his popularity. Meanwhile, in Oman, a false rumor spread by several partisan news sites claimed that the state would levy a fine on anyone who discovered a cure to the virus. In Egypt, false claims spread on social media that the government would reduce the time allotted for Friday sermons, an attempt to undermine the government for a perceived infringement on religion.

Government officials themselves were the source of misinformation in several narratives we found. In Israel, the deputy health minister falsely claimed that Israel has the highest rate of coronavirus testing in the world. In early April in Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a speech holding the West liable for the pandemic, in addition to sharing the hashtag #COVID1948 on social media, a reference to the 1948 establishment of Israel. Khamenei’s actions are just one example of the several state narratives in Iran that blame other countries for the creation and spread of the pandemic, while continuing to maintain that domestically, the country is returning to normal.

Although there is a lot of misinformation coursing through the media and on social networks in the Middle East and North Africa, there are at least 10 fact-checking platforms in the region, publishing information in both Arabic and English.

In the Middle East and North Africa, false stories perpetuated by a mix of social media users, official media, and political leaders make it difficult for regular people to differentiate what’s true from misinformation. A volatile region where three wars are being fought can ill afford coronavirus-related lies and nationalistic pandemic one-upmanship.

LINK: https://thebulletin.org/2020/09/cor...onspiratorial-fuel-to-a-volatile-middle-east/
https://thebulletin.org/2020/07/fact-checking-networks-fight-coronavirus-infodemic-copy/

 

[LeGenD]

What’s the Hold-up? How YouTube’s inaction allowed the spread of a major French COVID-19 conspiracy documentary

What’s the Hold-up? How YouTube’s inaction allowed the spread of a major French COVID-19 conspiracy documentary - EU DisinfoLab

On 11 November 2020, the French company Tprod released a COVID-19 conspiracy documentary called “Hold-up”. The documentary is based on interviews of several French-speaking controversial figures and conspiracy theorists, which have been part of the main sources of COVID-19 disinformation in the...

www.disinfo.eu

 

[LeGenD]

Did US Biolabs In Ukraine Create COVID-19 Virus?! | Tech ARP

Did Russia just prove that US biolabs in Ukraine created the COVID-19 virus?! Find out what the facts really are!

www.techarp.com

 

[RescueRanger]

Thank you. Bookmarked for further reading.

 

[Shahzad Riaz]

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