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Fighting the Infodemic

Feb 3, 2021 | 2020 ISSUE, TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS

Fighting the Infodemic

2020 ISSUE, TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS

Written by Nour Chahine

It seems that in the current climate, it is impossible to browse on social media without encountering a post related to the current pandemic ravaging the world, Covid-19.
The Coronavirus disease is an infectious respiratory illness, and though it does not normally pose a risk on healthy young people, it could be fatal for the older population amongst us, especially those with compromised immune systems. The Covid-19 virus is usually transmitted through small droplets whenever an infected person coughs, sneezes or exhales. There are millions of confirmed cases globally and hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the disease, but it has also impacted the world in more ways.
A woman from my own village was influenced by some rumors regarding the virus’s fatality, and mixed multiple detergents out of fear of the virus. She eventually died of the toxic fumes. It goes without saying that the rate at which information spreads around today is very high, sometimes despite the fact that it is false. Misinformation, consequently, could be as dangerous as the disease itself.

The World Health Organization has named this dangerous spread of information an “infodemic” and has called upon global tech leaders for help. It all started when Aleksandra Kuzmanovic, a social media officer at the WHO agency in Geneva, emailed a contact at Pinterest, asking for help to prevent the spread of myths, hoaxes, and dangerous lies. Now if you search coronavirus on Pinterest you will get a link to the WHO’s page of certified information and busted myths. Ever since then, Kuzmanovic has been in contact with some of the world’s tech giants in order to fight the infodemic.

In fact, a group of seven tech giants have taken it upon themselves to sign a joint agreement to stop the spread of dangerous misinformation such as fake cures and conspiracy theories.  They are Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube and they have released a joint statement emphasizing that they are working together to keep people connected and bring trustworthy information to light. You have probably tried googling coronavirus at some point over the past few months. Have you noticed the red alert you get on the side? It comes with corresponding links to where you can find valid and certified evidence-based information.

 

More and more are realizing just how powerful tech companies have become nowadays, and how integral they have become to the maintenance of safe, healthy populations. Nonetheless, it is imperative to recognize the communities that have been using those social media platforms to contribute to the cause. The American University of Beirut itself has been playing an important role in fighting the infodemic in Lebanon by sharing useful information on its website and sending useful email alerts to all its faculty and staff.
It is crucial that we also take the necessary measures to prevent misinformation as much as we can: research the facts we receive before sharing them to our friends.

We must have all hands on deck to fight the infodemic.

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