Many people who participate in disinformation campaigns are unwitting accomplices and much of the information they spread is accurate, which makes it all the harder to identify the campaigns.
Unlike the US, Australia hasn’t yet been hit by a large-scale disinformation campaign focussed on meddling with elections. But this is a ‘realistic prospect’ moving forward.
Eryn Newman, Australian National University; Amy Dawel, Australian National University; Madeline Jalbert, University of Southern California, and Norbert Schwarz, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Instead of debunking false claims, psychology shows promoting the facts is a more effective way to fight the spread of misinformation.
From political ideologies, conspiracy theories or “reopen” protests, when faced with uncertainty, we seek reassurance in the face of mortality through efforts at containment.
The recognition that COVID-19 is accompanied by an equally alarming “infodemic” has added a level of complexity to the situation. What are the consequences of this avalanche of information?
Jair Bolsonaro has ignored and openly challenged the advice of health authorities, sacked his health minister and tried to use the pandemic for political gain.
Hospitals have requested that people avoid non-emergency visits, and conspiracy theorists are posting images of empty parking lots online as false proof that COVID-19 is an elaborate hoax.
Attempting to defeat these folk theories with science achieved little; the myth busters of the AIDS epidemic were talking past those they were trying to convince.
Twitter’s efforts to label misinformation during the US primaries haven’t met with success. So how do we sift useful coronavirus information from wrong or downright dangerous untruths?