World leaders, WhatsApp misinformation and miracle cures

Does anyone else feel like they're starting to settle into a new normal? Closing off the third full month of COVID-19 with quarantines and lockdowns around the world, life in isolation is starting to register as the most unexceptional part of exceptional times. Newsrooms are shifting coverage from daily phone alerts about case counts to the economy, data analyses and stimulus packages. In Toronto shops are closed, restaurants are only offering takeout, and the primary form of social contact involves approaching the roadside and projecting loud enough to chat with neighbours across the street. Some pull up lawn chairs.

Massive downturns and social quarantines registering as prosaic is, in reality, completely not normal. These are still unprecedented times, and misinformation continues to rage across the internet about the virus, causing real world health outcomes. This week's Checklist brings you some examples of that, as well as tips for responsible fact-checking during a pandemic, brought to you by our in-house public health expert, Natalie Gyenes.

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WhatsApp is a Petri Dish of Coronavirus Misinformation (Mother Jones)

Fact-checkers identified 140 different COVID-19 myths circulating on the closed messaging network, from Indonesia to Nigeria to Sri Lanka. Many of the myths involve false miracle cures and treatments for the virus, and conspiracy theories about the virus being engineered by pharmaceutical companies, which is false.

"WhatsApp is also unique in that it offers end-to-end encrypted service, which means only the senders and recipients—not the platform itself—can see the content of messages. While encryption  makes the platform secure and protects privacy, can be a double-edged sword. Governments have asked WhatsApp to break its encryption to aid with  criminal investigations; so far, the platform has refused. But researchers, journalists, and fact checkers say that encryption makes it impossible to track the source of fake or misleading messages." - Sinduja Rangarajan, Mother Jones 

Five tips for fact-checking during a pandemic (Meedan)

Before we go any further, now might be a good time to point you to a resource for fact-checking misinformation during this crisis. Meedan's Digital Health Lab put together five tips, because sifting through an onslaught of misinformation and competing narratives is one of the greatest challenges of the pandemic. These tips build from the report we released a few months ago on responsible health fact-checking.

"For questions about specific treatment or prevention strategies, such as questions about whether antibiotics are used to treat COVID-19 (they’re not*), respond to whether they have been tested or validated in the COVID-19 context only. This ensures that the fact-check response doesn’t resemble a clinical recommendation, and avoids possibly harmful references to other contexts in which particular treatments have been effective." - Natalie Gyenes, Meedan

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro says coronavirus crisis is a media trick (The Guardian)

Some pandemic misinformation can be traced back to world leaders. In a television interview, Bolsonaro downplayed the pandemic and attacked the governors of key states including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo who have ordered residents to stay at home and are imposing quarantines.

"[The pandemic] looks set to exact a deadly toll on Latin America in the coming weeks, with many regional governments closing borders and shutting down major cities in a desperate bid to limit the damage. But Bolsonaro has resisted such drastic measures, dismissing media “hysteria” over coronavirus and calling the illness 'a little flu'." - Tom Phillips, The Guardian 

Fighting With Boomers About Coronavirus Misinformation On WhatsApp Won’t Make Any Of Us Less Afraid (Buzzfeed)

It's no secret that the pandemic is creating a generational divide in many households around the world, centered around everything from social distancing to online rumours. But a Buzzfeed reporter recently found that in her online circles, it wasn't only boomers believing false messages.

"...All my conversations with my family this week have been gentle chidings telling me not to freak out. There’s no real need to worry because Indians have “higher immunity because we have been exposed to more anti-bodies than people in the west” and “coronavirus does not survive in warm weather.” Naively, I thought the problem was only boomers, but then one morning this week, a friend told me she was being invited to 'anti-COVID smoking sessions' every day because someone in Goa had decided that the coronavirus hated weed." - Nishita Jha, Buzzfeed News

Amid coronavirus pandemic, Iran covers up crucial information and threatens journalists (Committee to Protect Journalists)

Initially Iran's leaders claimed COVID-19 would not pose a problem. Then some blamed it on international sanctions. Others accused the U.S. of waging biological warfare on Iran. Journalists who spoke to CPJ said officials covered up the spread of COVID-19 to ensure that citizens would turn out for February 21 parliamentary elections.

"In addition to blocking news outlets’ reporting about the outbreak, the government has cracked down on journalists seeking to disseminate information about the pandemic online and through social media. According to CPJ reporting, in late February, during the early days of the outbreak, freelance economic reporter Mohammad Mosaed was temporarily detained over social media posts critical of the government’s lack of preparation to tackle the fatal disease. His Twitter and Telegram accounts were suspended by the security forces." - CPJ 

In Iran, false belief a poison fights virus kills hundreds (Associated Press)

This is a grave example of how misinformation contributes to the spread of poor health outcomes. About 300 people have been killed, and more than 1,000 injured, from ingesting methanol. Methanol is a fake remedy that is spreading across social media in Iran, where people are suspicious of government after leaders downplayed the crisis.

"'Other countries have only one problem, which is the new coronavirus pandemic. But we are fighting on two fronts here,” said Dr. Hossein Hassanian, an adviser to Iran’s Health Ministry who gave the higher figures to the AP. “We have to both cure the people with alcohol poisoning and also fight the coronavirus.'" - Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell, Associated Press

Open Source Investigation 

How Coronavirus Scammers Hide On Facebook And YouTube
Bellingcat

"It does not take very long at all to find different species of coronavirus disinformation propagating on Facebook. Much of the content focuses around various fake ways to “treat” or “prevent” the virus’s spread. Colloidal silver is a commonly touted cure. Ayurvedic treatments are also marketed for the virus, along with Miracle Mineral Solution, which is essentially just industrial bleach. Several sites urge people to take Vitamin C to prevent coronavirus spread, and of course pages claiming to sell indigenous medicine also market their own treatments (in this case, yet more silver). All of these examples were found by Bellingcat in less than a half hour."