Airplane transmission and calls to end censorship in Egypt
This week, we have news roundups for you about Facebook's moves to curb hate speech in Myanmar and calls to end censorship in Egypt, as well as some tips to watch for as the U.S. president sows doubt and misinformation about the results of the presidential election.
We will continue to share updates and highlights from emerging economies in future issues of The Checklist. We know these stories matter. Please share this issue with friends and do reach out to us via checklist@meedan.com
Your COVID-19 questions
Journalist and medical doctor, Dr. Seema Yasmin shares weekly highlights from Meedan's public health journalism tool, learnaboutcovid19.org.
Can animals with no symptoms spread COVID-19?
Dr. Seema says: "In the first week of November, the Danish government decided to cull 15 million mink because the coronavirus has spread from humans to mink and back to humans. It’s also mutated in the process, but not to a form that’s thought to be more contagious or dangerous—although there is one strain of the virus that was spread from mink to humans which looks to be less sensitive to protective antibodies. Five thousand mink at a farm in Wisconsin have also died from the infection. So far, mink are the only animals known to spread the virus to people, except for the initial spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people which occurred from a still unidentified animal. There are also reports of monkeys, mice, ferrets, tigers, and hamsters, which have been infected, and you may recall early reports of domesticated dogs and cats becoming infected, although there is no evidence that any of these animals spread the virus to humans. Still, there is the concern that an animal susceptible to infection could become a reservoir for the coronavirus, like mink. Mink can experience similar symptoms to humans with Covid-19, including pneumonia, although like us, some infected mink exhibit no symptoms at all. " (Read more on what our experts say here)
What do we know about controlling the spread of COVID-19 through hyper-local measures?
Dr. Seema says: "Daily COVID-19 rates have increased 57% across the U.S. in the past two weeks and deaths from COVID-19 have increased 12%. While many regions are struggling to contain the virus with test positivity rates of 51% in South Dakota and 42% in Iowa, the proportion of tests coming back positive is drastically lower in some parts, including test positivity rates of 1% in Vermont and Maine and 2% in New York, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Washington DC. Regional measures such as hyper-local lockdowns can help limit contact between people and therefore reduce the spread of the virus. But hyper-local measures are only as effective as the compliance of the people inside the hotspot. While localized measures can allow life to continue without restriction for people in areas with less community transmission, containing the virus within hotspots requires people in that area to abide by the hyper-local restrictions, and assumes they will not leave the region and that people from low-spread areas will not enter. Some countries have seen success with hyper-local measures such as rapid testing for close to 100% of residents in areas where a cluster is forming, but these countries have had excellent compliance with these measures. So far, the U.S. has not had a cohesive national response to the pandemic and many regions have lacked the leadership and resources to mount effective and early local responses that could stop clusters from forming." (Read more on what our experts say here)
What do we know about transmission on airplanes?
Dr. Seema says: "There’s a misconception that air is continuously recirculated on airplanes, but the air is actually passed through a high efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filter and mixed with outside air. Still, there have been cases of COVID-19 traced back to transmission on a plane, typically with people sitting within one to two rows of one another, or through contact with airline staff. The risk of infection on a plane is determined by the duration of the flight, proximity to other passengers, and factors such as mask-wearing and hand and surface hygiene." (Read more on what our experts say here)
Highlights from emerging economies
'Spreading like wildfire': Facebook fights hate speech before Myanmar poll (Reuters)
Disinformation and hate speech could undermine the integrity of the upcoming Myanmar election. With its efforts in collaboration with civic society and fact-check groups to take down such content, Facebook claimed that hate speech is at 'historic lows' in Myanmar. However, fact-checkers point to the need for further action as many of the malicious networks and accounts are still active.
"Facebook executives told Reuters hate speech in Myanmar was “near historic lows” after it invested in resources from artificial intelligence language and photo detection to measures to slow the spread of viral content. But civil society groups have found dozens of networks of accounts, pages, and groups spreading ethnically and religiously charged falsehoods that they fear could lead to strife and undermine the second election since the end of hardline army rule in 2011."— Fanny Potkin and Poppy McPherson, Reuters
Human rights organizations call on Egypt’s government to end internet censorship and website blocking (IFEX)
Over 25 organizations signed an open letter calling on Egypt's government to end censorship and website blocking. Since May 2017, the Egyptian government has blocked at least 600 websites, including media, political and human rights platforms, posing a clear violation to individuals' rights to access information and freedom of expression.
"The Egyptian government’s continued efforts to block websites and restrict access to information online are a clear violation of human rights standards, mainly article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that Egypt has ratified, as well as national constitutional principles, and must come to an end." — IFEX
O que as plataformas (não) fizeram para combater a desinformação (Le Monde)
Despite the scandals and demands for actions by the digital platforms that support social networks, the measures taken by them have been insufficient to concretely face the problem. This is the conclusion from the survey "Fake News: How platforms face disinformation," released this week by Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social, a Brazilian organisation that works for safeguarding freedom of expression and human rights in all forms of communication.
“The absence of a unified approach and internal organization [from the platforms] does not alleviate the problem, on the contrary. It leaves room for others, such as unilateral and unclear decisions, which end up reinforcing the inequality of knowledge and power between corporations and users.” — Bia Barbosa, Helena Martins and Jonas Valente
5 types of misinformation to watch out for while ballots are being counted – and after (The Conversation)
The U.S. presidential election is over, but researchers of the Election Integrity Partnership identified five types of misinformation that citizens and fact-checkers need to watch out for in the coming days. These include 'influencers' providing dubious evidence of voter fraud, conspiracy theories of ballots lost and found, bad projections by media organizations and premature claims to victory.
“As members of the Election Integrity Partnership and researchers who study online misinformation and disinformation, we have been monitoring social media. We are seeing five types of false and misleading narratives that people are spreading and are likely to spread online, wittingly or not. We urge people to be alert for – and to avoid spreading – the following types of misinformation, which erode trust in the electoral process and in one another.” — Kate Starbird, Jevin West and Renee DiResta, The Conversation
Meedan Updates
Meet Kritika Goel, Associate Editor, the Quint
Since October 2019, Meedan has run a global fact-checking project using the WhatsApp Business API and powered by Check, an open-source platform built by Meedan. During the year, we entered into new and exciting partnerships with fact-checking groups and newsrooms across the globe to combat misinformation. As a community, we have made huge strides and learned from each other.
Starting this month, we will speak to members of our partner organizations about their fact-checking experiences and their vision for the future. Here, we present the first interview of the series with Kritika Goel, Associate Editor at the Quint.