By Anna Plumb
In the Pandemic the main concern for the public globally has been the harm of the virus and the increase of cases. Another issue that should concern everyone is the massive spread of misinformation. Stories about injecting yourself with disinfectant for immunity or setting lions out on the streets in Russia to keep citizens in lockdown are being spread nationally and globally. These stories are either not true or are presented incorrectly both of which provide the public with more misinformation. For example, when President Trump questioned the experts about injection of disinfectant, it was distorted by media and political opponents from the President asking a question of experts to an incident of the President telling people to inject themselves with disinfectant. This became the only story the public heard and it caused confusion about the truth. This is a big problem during a pandemic because, as a survey conducted by Global Web Index showed 67 percent of respondents have increased the amount of time watching the news. Misinformation causes confusion about the actual versus the conveyed facts. According to Jevin West, the co-founder of Calling Bullshit– a company working to discredit misinformation, “I think scientists need to get out there on the front line, if they are comfortable doing so.” West argues that by doing so scientists could provide the public with facts while eliminating misinterpretation by the media. In addition to the infodemic. Scientific knowledge can also change, and this too can cause credibility issues and cost scientists public support. For example, Americans have been fighting amongst those who believe wearing masks or limiting false or misleading information equals a limitation on their First Amendment rights. The Constitution does allow and protect the spread of information including false information. Moreover, the United States Supreme Court has made clear that even intentionally false speech cannot be criminalized where that speech does not cause material, provable harm. In contrast, countries like the United Kingdom have already been active in addressing the spread of misinformation and free speech. Similar to the United States, everyone has the right to freedom of expression. From the BBC News the government has re-launched a campaign called “Don’t Feed the Beast.” The government has used this campaign to encourage the public to think carefully before they share information on the internet. England has taken slightly more action than the U.S. to address the spread but there are still challenges due to free speech in both countries. In brief, information is very easily spread between people especially when the knowledge of this virus is changing constantly, remember to not believe everything you see and form your own opinion from statistical truth.
Bibliography: Work Cited
Carmichael, Flora, and Marianna Spring. “Coronavirus: Here’s How You Can Stop Bad Information from Going Viral.” BBC News, BBC, 20 Apr. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-51967889.
“Fighting Disinformation.” European Commission – European Commission, 28 July 2020, ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response-covid/fighting-disinformation_en.
Fleming, Nic. “Coronavirus Misinformation, and How Scientists Can Help to Fight It.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 17 June 2020, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01834-3.
Gilens , Naomi, and Jillian C. York. “New Laws Banning False News Threaten the Free Flow of Information Worldwide.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, 29 June 2020, www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/05/recognizing-world-press-freedom-day-during-covid-19.
Lostri, Eugenia, and Maggie Tennis. “Fighting Europe’s Covid-19 Infodemic: Freedom of Expression Concerns.” Fighting Europe’s Covid-19 Infodemic: Freedom of Expression Concerns | Center for Strategic and International Studies, 20 July 2020, www.csis.org/blogs/technology-policy-blog/fighting-europes-covid-19-infodemic-freedom-expression-concerns.
Restating the main idea of this blog, misinformation and disinformation has made it more difficult to control the spread of this novel virus, especially when misinformation is coming out from authorities from all around the globe. This is creating a lack of cooperation and more confusion among communities, it is also misleading the public by ignoring public-health advice. What can we do as a public to prevent the spread of misinformation? Is social media generating more confusion among active users or could it be a helpful tool that can contribute to preventive measures in order to combat the spread of Covid-19? I also agree with the author’s statement that the United States government should take more action to address this issue. This pandemic has proved to us how inaccurate information is risking people’s lives. As a consequence, it has created a lack of transparency, trust, and coordination between authorities and the public.
I agree with everything you’re saying. The pandemic has definitely turned into a massive info-war and that has had a great ripple effect onto the people with not knowing what or who they can trust. The word “Infodemic” is a really good way to put it as well. Info-Wars can be seen many different times in history, especially during big elections or controversial events. Not only are we dealing with confusing claims and information from the current pandemic, but now we also have that issue with the election. The campaign that you mentioned from BBC is a really helpful campaign that I don’t think is getting enough attention.
Personally I agree with the article’s realization of calling out the spread of misinformation that lays here in the US as different nations are treating the virus through different sorts of levels of seriousness. You hear cases of how North Korea is trying to suppress the idea worldwide that they don’t have any reported cases and some conspiracy theories have came out on the government either banishing alleged people with the virus or killing them off. The lack of power from our president trying to treat the disease as the number one issue lying in America makes his political followers deceive what WHO or Dr. Anthony Fauci is trying to preach as the White House does its job to cancel out the work certain doctors are advising for the virus. As you said in your blog post, the issue of wearing a mask turns political with the so called imbreachment of one of the touching points of the First Amendment. I like how you put in the statistic of a rise of watch time by more then 67 percent as it helps to highlight the image that some news stations such as CNN or Fox News enjoys to side with a certain political spectrum/side rather then giving the cold hard truth. Lastly, it was a great touching point to include the England as even if Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are in a similar sort of political bubble as one another, misinformation is more strictly guide lined and reformed in Europe comparing to how loosely structured it is in the US.
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Agree, in this milenia, scientific knowledge can also change, and this too can cause credibility issues and cost scientists public support.
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