Misinformation, measures and facts during a global health crisis
As the world grapples with the novel coronavirus outbreak, we continue to follow-up on stories and facts related to the epidemic. In this week's Checklist, we take a look at censorship of COVID-19 content and misinformation around the number of people that have tested positive for the epidemic. We question the role played by state authorities in reporting facts and information about the epidemic. We're sad that our friends have had to call off or postpone media conferences and events being held in March-April this year because of the spread of COVID-19. We see this as a loss for the entire community; however, we support the decision to suspend the events, given the volatility of the present health situation.
We look at the coming weeks with a lot of hope for a better and healthier world. And finally, we're super excited to announce the launch of Meedan's newly designed website. It's months of hard work and dedication that has gone into updating, redesigning and making the website more user friendly. We will keep updating it with new content and announcements. For any feedback, comments and suggestions on the website and the newsletter, please email us.
The latest top stories
Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media (The Citizen Lab)
In this report, Citizen Lab presents the results of censorship measures on YY, which is a live-streaming platform in China, and on WeChat, the Chinese multi-purpose messaging app. The analysis shows how Chinese social media censored content related to COVID-19 in the early stages of the epidemic outbreak. The censorship started during the early stages of the outbreak, the report finds, and continued to expand, blocking a wide range of speech, from criticism of the government to officially sanctioned facts and information.
"Countering misinformation and uninformed speculation related to the epidemic may help keep public fear in check and remove information that would mislead people about how best to protect themselves. However, restricting general discussions and factual information has the opposite effect and limits public awareness and response." - Lotus Ruan, Jeffrey Knockel, and Masashi Crete-Nishihata
Coronavirus: A Digital Governance Emergency of International Concern (Centre for International Governance Innovation)
In this article, Sean McDonald, co-founder of Digital Public, discusses the extent of state power in digital spaces in light of COVID-19 outbreak. According to Sean, the digital tools, tactics and powers that countries develop as a response to COVID-19 will lead to future attempts to manipulate markets, borders and politics. The international policy community's response to COVID-19 is that of containment and blame, and while it's difficult to contain false and misleading information, the best strategy is to mobilize systems of digital diplomacy and adapt.
"Early on, in order to find a suspected carrier of the COVID-19 virus, the United States used Uber records to track the patient to Mexico, which then caused the company to block another 240 drivers. Recently, US President Donald Trump called COVID-19 a “hoax,” perpetuated by his political opponents, before walking the remarks back. Similarly, Taiwan’s foreign minister accused the Chinese government of waging “cyber war” in order to effect its COVID-19 response. Even if there was uniform agreement that these digital exertions of power were effective — and there isn’t — there are very few mechanisms to articulate, check or challenge the digital limits of state power during a time of crisis." - Sean McDonald
Pinterest is now showing custom search results for coronavirus to combat misinformation (The Verge)
Tried searching for COVID-19 on Pinterest? The platform curated information from the World Health Organization (WHO) on protection and precautions related to the epidemic. They also recommend users to follow the verified WHO Pinterest account for information. In addition, the platform will remove any misinformation related to COVID-19 because that violates its health misinformation policy, the company says. This approach is similar to Pinterest's policy for providing accurate search results for vaccine information.
“We’ve been working with the World Health Organization over the last year to connect Pinners to facts about critical health topics, from the new coronavirus to vaccines. We want to do our part to make sure people can find authoritative information when it really counts.” - A Pinterest spokesperson
The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It (The Atlantic)
On the morning of March 3, the case count for people that tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States stood at 43 (excluding cruise-ship cases). According to Alexis C. Madrigal, fluctuating case count numbers are wrong, and constantly printing and quoting them can amount to a subtle form of misinformation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s testing procedures focused exclusively on travelers, rather than testing more broadly. The processes for collecting data were flawed and therefore, the number of cases reported is far too low.
"The point is that every country’s numbers are the result of a specific set of testing and accounting regimes. Everyone is cooking the data, one way or another. And yet, even though these inconsistencies are public and plain, people continue to rely on charts showing different numbers, with no indication that they are not all produced with the same rigor or vigor. This is bad. It encourages dangerous behavior such as cutting back testing to bring a country’s numbers down or slow-walking testing to keep a country’s numbers low." - Alexis C. Madrigal
Facebook removes two Middle East-focused fake account networks (Reuters)
Facebook Inc has removed two networks of fake accounts linked to digital marketing firms in Egypt and India which, according to the platform, were pushing dueling narratives about countries in the Gulf on the Facebook and Instagram platforms. Facebook said one network had been posting criticism of Qatar and positive commentary about the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It linked the activity to two companies in Egypt, which it had already accused of seeding similar narratives last year. A smaller network linked to an Indian digital marketing firm had been using fake accounts to post praise for Qatar and critiques of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Facebook said in its report. The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Lab (DFL) conducted an investigation into Egypt's disinformation network. Their report corroborated the link to one of the companies but was unable to corroborate any direct connection to the other company, Flexell.
"Facebook, in its first monthly report on information operations, said both networks violated its policies on foreign interference, although the world's biggest social network did not name any state actors suspected to be behind those efforts." - Reuters
Twitter Is Testing Out Disappearing Tweets (Wired)
Big tech companies testing out disappearing messages - this seems to be a major product trend. From Telegram, Signal to Facebook Messenger and Instagram Stories, even LinkenIn have introduced temporary, self-deleting posts. Twitter has now announced that they're testing 'fleets' in Brazil. Fleets will show up in a carousel at the top of the home timeline and they'll disappear after 24 hours.
Do these fleeting posts have the potential of being used for harassment, bullying and posting hateful content? Twitter says fleets will follow the same rules as other content on Twitter, and people can report them the same way they report tweets. Fleets won’t be available for anyone to see after 24 hours—there isn’t an archive, like on Instagram—but Twitter will hold onto them for cases of harassment, abuse, or issues that may involve law enforcement.
"The company says it chose Brazil, its test market, because it's one of Twitter's "most conversational countries." It's also a country grappling with issues like online disinformation: WhatsApp, in particular, became a platform for coordinated disinformation campaigns during Brazil's election in 2018. It remains to be seen how fleets will be used there—but plenty of people will be watching." - Wired
Open Source Investigation
Greek Security Services May Be Using Potentially Lethal Tear Gas Munitions – Bellingcat
Disclaimer: the video related to this article and the report contains graphic content and might be disturbing for some viewers
Bellingcat and Forensic Architecture are investigating the killing of Muhammad al-Arab, a Syrian man who was shot dead at the Evros-Meriç river border. The report was denounced as 'fake news' by the Greek government. This report suggests otherwise. According to the report,
Images and videos posted by journalists, activists and Turkish politicians show expended munitions in the vicinity of protests by refugees trying to enter Greece from Turkey.
These images and videos of munition do appear to have been taken at the Turkish-Greek border. Multiple separate accounts have posted images and videos of these munitions, all claiming that they were used at the border.