Miracle cures regulated in Canada, and eight misinformation arrests in South Africa
Welcome to this week's edition of the newsletter. Your roundup today has analyses on COVID-19 disinformation, which is evolving in public and private online spaces, fuelled often by existing regional tensions, profit, or the evasion of platform moderation. We are also including a Reuters Institute analysis on the types of misinformation that fact-checkers are encountering as they verify pandemic claims. Enjoy, and don't forget to share this issue with friends! Newsletter reading is a quarantine-approved activity.
Here's your weekly roundup!
Arrests mount as Africa battles a destructive wave of COVID-19 disinformation (The Globe and Mail)
Conspiracy theories on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are contributing to individuals refusing to get tested for the virus. South African police have arrested eight people for disseminating false information, and others have been arrested or charged in Botswana and Kenya.
"Human-rights groups have criticized the emergency regulations as excessive and dangerous. And the arrests seem to be ineffective: The disinformation has continued relentlessly, despite the criminal charges. Much of it is fuelled by a mistrust of governments and scientists. After the arrest of the Cape Town man, Twitter was immediately filled with dozens of tweets from South Africans who insisted that his claims were correct." - Geoffrey York, The Globe and Mail
Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation (Reuters Institute)
Meedan partners around the world are the organizations that fact-check, debunk, contextualize and verify important COVID-19 content, such as the misinformation we're seeing increase around the world. This resource is useful for journalists and researchers alike: it's a breakdown of the types of pandemic misinformation that are manifesting on the web.
"Rather than being completely fabricated, much of the misinformation in our sample involves various forms of reconfiguration where existing and often true information is spun, twisted, recontextualised, or reworked (see Figure 2) (Wardle 2019). Judging from the social media data collected, reconfigured content saw higher engagement than content that was wholly fabricated." - Dr. J. Scott Brennen et. al., Reuters Institute
Automated Moderation Must be Temporary, Transparent and Easily Appealable (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Some content moderation challenges are being exacerbated by the pandemic. As more of the world moves online — with virtual conferences, webinars, increased use of social media, among other things — social platforms are turning to automated tools to handle more of their moderation.
"Automated technology doesn’t work at scale; it can’t read nuance in speech the way humans can, and for some languages it barely works at all. Over the years, we’ve seen the use of automation result in numerous wrongful takedowns. In short: automation is not a sufficient replacement for having a human in the loop...It’s important to give credit where credit is due. In their announcements, YouTube and Twitter both acknowledged the shortcomings of artificial intelligence, and are taking that into account as they moderate speech." - Jillian York and Corynne McSherry, Electronic Frontier Foundation
It Was Already Dangerous to Be Muslim in India. Then Came the Coronavirus (TIME)
Islamophobic hashtags have been circulating online throughout India's COVID-19 crisis. Starting when Indian authorities linked dozens of cases of COVID-19 to a Muslim missionary group, videos "falsely claiming to show members of the missionary group spitting on police and others quickly went viral on social media." The surge in hate speech is the exacerbation of the pandemic on existing tensions between the country's Hindu nationalists and Muslims.
"One of the most popular false #CoronaJihad tweets claims to show a Muslim man from the Delhi congregation intentionally coughing on somebody. The tweet referred to Muslims as “such vile minded people” and listed hashtags including #CoronaJihad and #TablighiJamatVirus, a reference to the religious group that met in Delhi. But the video featured in the viral tweet was actually filmed in Thailand, not India, and there is no proof that the man was a member of the Delhi congregation. Nevertheless, the tweet was still online as of April 3, with more than 4,200 retweets and 503 replies. Another video shared on both Facebook and Twitter purporting to show Muslims intentionally sneezing on each other was debunked by the fact-checking organization AltNews." - Billy Perrigo, TIME
Mushrooms, oregano oil and masks targeted in crackdown on misleading COVID-19 ads (CBC)
Health Canada is fielding dozens of complaints about products claiming to prevent or treat coronavirus. A mushroom spray, oil of oregano and a hat to kill coronavirus in saliva are among the products targeted by Health Canada in its crackdown on misleading and false claims of COVID-19 prevention and cures. In total, Health Canada issued 27 notices for nine products claiming to prevent or treat the virus; eight related to the sale of masks; four related to household disinfectants or hand sanitizer; two related to respirators; and four others that Health Canada says violate the Food and Drug Act.
"Canadian and U.S. health authorities continue to stress that there are no medications or health products approved to treat or cure COVID-19. The best way to avoid getting infected, authorities say, is to wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your face, stay at least two metres from other people and remain at home as much as possible.
Claims made on Amazon Canada included: a mixture of mushrooms that could boost immunity and prevent COVID-19 and a special "anti-dust, anti-fog, anti-coronavirus" hat that could isolate infected saliva. In a statement to CBC News on Tuesday, the online retail giant said it used both automated filters and human reviewers to remove products with COVID-related claims in their descriptions." - Rachel Ward, CBC
The danger meme: Countering visual disinformation in Asia’s politics (The Lowy Institute)
As many countries in Asia gear up for 2020 elections, the “infodemic” of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 has made the need to counter disinformation even more acute, and visual disinformation deserves particular attention as social media shifts increasingly to video and image-based content.
"Visuals have a unique emotive impact on the audience, an aspect that has been exploited by disinformation producers. Visual images reinforce popular antagonism and harness the virulent rage of political supporters online. It is easier to get away with subversive messaging using memes, photos and videos. Research noted that humans are inept at identifying manipulated photos. Current sentiment analysis software still finds it tricky to interpret the messages behind visual content too." - Jennifer Yang Hui, The Lowy Institute
Open Source Investigation
How Coronavirus Disinformation Gets Past Social Media Moderators
Bellingcat
"The most insidious information being spread about the coronavirus is not so easily stopped. In fact, a loose, headless network of media personalities and news websites has developed a fairly robust strategy for spreading coronavirus lies on social media — while also evading bans."