The threats of unchecked misinformation and snooping
As Indonesia battles a surge of COVID-19 cases, misinformation has emerged as a major obstacle in containing the pandemic in the country. Meanwhile in Brazil, social media platform YouTube removed videos of President Bolsonaro for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. As anti-government protests erupted in Cuba, experts observed disinformation to have spread fast on social media and suspect the use of bots behind the surge. Phone numbers of several Indian journalists and activists were found in the leaked database of numbers hacked using Pegasus, raising concerns of unchecked state surveillance in the country.
Do read our blogpost that looks at how fact-checkers can potentially collaborate with grassroots newsrooms to address some of the challenges related to vaccine hesitancy.
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Hoaxes deter vaccination drive, efforts to curb Covid-19 in Indonesia (The Straits Times)
Misinformation around COVID-19 and vaccines is posing serious challenges in containing the pandemic in Indonesia. While the country has imposed emergency curbs on movement amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases, fact-checking group Mafindo has pointed to the need for serious efforts to curb the distribution of hoaxes and misinformation on social media channels.
"These emergency curbs (on economic activity and movement) must be accompanied by serious efforts to suppress the channels where hoaxes are distributed. Hoaxes lead to breaches of health protocols, and opposition towards vaccines... This is a serious issue. A lot of people are more easily exposed to hoaxes, while few people get to read the clarifications." - Septiaji Eko Nugroho, Chairman, Mafindo
Cuba Becomes Battlefield in Fake News War (Newsweek)
Disinformation spread quickly across social media platforms as historic anti-government protests erupted in Cuba earlier this month—and it's bots that are being widely utilized to spread fake news fast, experts have told Newsweek.
"It's clear that there are bots involved in the conversation about what's going on in Cuba." - Sam Woolley, Program Director of propaganda, University of Texas at Austin's Center for Media Engagement
Pegasus: Why unchecked snooping threatens India's democracy (BBC)
Pegasus spyware sold to governments by an Israeli software firm NSO group is said to have hacked the phones of activists, scholars and journalists around the world. An investigation conducted by 16 international media outlets of a leaked database of 50,000 numbers revealed that more than 300 of the numbers were of Indians. However, India's Narendra Modi-led government has again denied accusations of any unauthorised surveillance.
"What has now changed is the scale, speed and discreteness with which electronic surveillance is being done on those who dissent....It is a good time to ask some hard questions. What happens to intercepted data after it is used? Where is it stored and who exactly in the government has access to it? Does anyone outside government agencies have access to it? What are the digital security measures and safeguards?" - Rohini Lakshane, technologist and public policy researcher
YouTube removes Bolsonaro videos containing misinformation about COVID-19 (DW Brasil)
YouTube said it removed President Jair Bolsonaro's videos from the platform for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. In a statement, the social network stated that, "after careful analysis", it decided to remove the contents for violating the platform's "medical information policies". Videos published this year and last year were deleted. Examples cited include the promotion of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat the disease.
"These guidelines are in line with guidance from local and global health authorities, and we've updated our policies as these guidelines change," the platform said in its statement.
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The case for collaborations of fact-checkers and grassroots newsrooms
Fact-checkers face a huge challenge in making fact-checks available to people in rural areas. In a recent effort to address this gap in reach of facts, the Quint an English and Hindi language Indian general news and opinion website, came up with a brilliant initiative. Their fact-check team WebQoof resorted to offline collaborations with grassroots level newsrooms and media organizations in gathering misinformation circulating in rural areas and among underserved communities in India. We spoke to Kritika Goel, Associate Editor with the Quint for insights on how the collaboration works and the responses in the community. Read this blogpost that shares highlights from the conversation with Kritika.