Governments control independent media in South Africa & Myanmar
This week in The Checklist we take a look at the efficacy of legislative approaches to address misinformation in Southeast Asia. As vaccine misinformation circulates across multiple platforms, it is becoming increasingly difficult to combat fears and anxiety with "fake news" legislations. In this issue of The Checklist, editors from the Ekta consortium of fact-checking groups in India talk about strategies they have adopted to address vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.
We also have updates from South Africa, Brazil and Myanmar on the role of governments in curbing and controlling independent media and spreading misinformation.
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“Fake news” laws are failing to stem Covid-19 misinformation in Southeast Asia (Rest of World)
Across the region, governments have enacted “fake news” legislation to force platforms to remove questionable content and to punish users who create or spread it. Most of this is designed to address public channels of social media — platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, while misinformation thrives on private, encrypted platforms like Telegram.
Facebook, among the largest social media platforms in the region, has prioritized the removal of anti-vaccination information since December 2020. YouTube banned anti-vaccine videos in October 2020 and has since removed tens of thousands of posts. But posts that sow doubt, rather than disputing the efficacy of vaccines outright, can often remain unflagged.
"In general, legislative approaches may have limited efficacy because of four ‘Vs’...The sheer volume of vaccine misinformation circulating; the velocity at which they spread; the variety of forms it takes, diverse countries of origin and platforms they circulate on; and the visceral feelings of fear and anxiety evoked by vaccine misinformation that cannot simply be legislated away." — Shawn Goh, a research assistant at the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore, and an expert on online misinformation
Looting of community radio stations: just a remarkable coincidence? (News 24)
Four community radio stations in South Africa were attacked during riots in the country following the conviction of former president Jacob Zuma, and had to shut down as a result. We don’t yet know if the looting of the four stations was targeted as a strategy to destabilise our country and incite further violence. But it seems an extremely happy coincidence that for those who are inciting the violence that they would target a centre of the community, a structure that represents the antithesis of violence, that represents dialogue, discussion, debate, information, commonality, and community.
"In attacking community media, those inciting the violence have sought to silence the community itself, they have sought to deny the community its voice and a forum to air views, to debate and to criticise. The attack is more than destruction of property and community and a clear and fundamental violation of the right to receive and impart information and freedom of expression." — William Bird, Director at Media Monitoring Africa
X-rays of Bolsonaro's 'lives' and speeches show an escalation of authoritarianism and misinformation (El Pais)
In the first half of 2021, Jair Bolsonaro raised the tone of his speeches, intensifying the frequency of authoritarian references. Fourteen months before the presidential elections, he reinforced the campaign of distrust of the Brazilian electoral system. He also began to use expressions such as “my army” and “my armed forces” more frequently in his YouTube lives , in which he evokes symbiosis with the military and appropriates for personal use the constitutional attribution he was entrusted with. And if the Bolsonaro Government finally embraced the vaccination campaign against Covid-19, in transmissions on social networks, the president continued to spread erroneous information about the disease. That's what an analysis of the president's speech patterns and speeches, made exclusively for EL PAÍS by data intelligence studio Lagom Data, points out.
"Our rules do not allow content that states that hydroxychloroquine and/or ivermectin are effective to treat or prevent Covid-19, guarantee that there is a cure for the disease; or ensures that the masks do not work to prevent the spread of the virus." — YouTube after taking down several videos in which Bolsonaro spreads disinformation about Covid-19
Bitter reversal: Myanmar military coup wipes out press freedom gains (Committee to Protect Journalists)
Myanmar’s junta has effectively criminalized independent journalism, arresting and charging journalists, closing news outlets, restricting access for international reporters, and driving journalists underground or into exile. Within a few months of the February military coup, the country has become one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists.
“We don’t accept the detention and sentencing of any of our DVB reporters or any other journalists being detained or sentenced in Burma (Myanmar). Their cases are being decided by kangaroo courts. — Aye Chan Naing, editor-in-chief of the Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent local media outlet
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Ekta consortium editors' take on vaccine hesitancy in India
In India, vaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. According to latest figures shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 342 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine and 93 million have been fully vaccinated until July 26, 2021. That’s about 25% and 6% of the population in India, respectively. Wide variations in the vaccination strategy across states are keeping India from achieving a desirable vaccination rate.
This blogpost captures the views of editors of Ekta consortium about the reasons for vaccine hesitancy in India and their response to the challenge. The Ekta consortium has been formed by six independent fact-checking groups in India: AFP Fact Check, BOOM Live, Factly, India Today Fact Check, Vishvas News and WebQoof.