Coronavirus Pandemic: It’s vital to counter the ‘infodemic’

A few days ago, one of my family members showed me a forwarded video. In the video, Muslims in a mosque are seen licking spoons and dropping them on a huge plate. The text message that preceded it made the astounding claim that some mischievous members of the community were deliberately attempting to spread the novel coronavirus and thereby make others in the society suffer. I was aghast that someone educated could so hastily fall for such an incredible claim. How could people not ask simple questions to verify? Where was the video shot? When? Are the members shown in the video either carriers of the virus or already marked out by the medical fraternity as suspects? How do we conclude that licking the spoons and plates is connected with a mal-intent to spread the virus? From whom am I receiving this forward? Do I believe in this video simply because someone I relate to has sent it? What is the sender’s ideological tilt? Did the person shoot the video or receive it from another person who received it from another person and so on? Do I take it at face value because I wish or fear it were true rather than make evidence-based conclusions?

Scepticism of this kind is, unfortunately, missing in these times when the globe is not just fighting a pandemic, but an infodemic. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General recently tweeted, “Our common enemy is Covid-19, but our enemy is also an ‘infodemic’ of misinformation.” When there is widespread doubt, confusion, fear and panic about the COVID-19 virus, it becomes easy for bigots, mischief-mongers and the ignorant to influence the information ecosystem

Across the world, a lot of sensational news content -- some half-truths, some patently false -- is circulating like pathogens in our information stream. There was one about the Italian Prime Minister crying, following the alarming COVID-19 death toll in his country. There was another stating that during summer, there would be no scope for coronavirus to spread. And then there were quite a few stories with their own prescriptions for curing COVID-19, either with nil or questionable scientific backing. Some of us might have by now come to know that there was an obvious sampling bias in the way the Nizamuddin religious event was marked out as a ‘superspreader’.

India’s vulnerability to sharing such sensational content is unfortunately excessive. We have a large population that is multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic, amidst many diverse struggles to attain equity. We have one of the largest illiterate adult populations in the world. We are only behind China when it comes to high internet consumption. India also has the cheapest rates in the entire world for mobile data consumption. Our educational standards and awareness are incompatible with the huge and complex data we are served. So, the interaction between quick-moving, and probably unverified content, and a socio-political context that is often edgy, is a recipe for an infodemic.

In times of uncertainty, a society like ours could get so easily swayed and let stereotypical thinking dictate the interpretative process. Social and economic inequality, communal hatred, political factionalism, lack of scientific temper, a culture of intolerance, etc., could add fuel to the din of confusion. People could start using their deep-seated biases and prejudices to decode information that reinforces their views about the other, phenomena and issues. As a consequence, an information disorder of this nature could exacerbate many existing social ills and dismantle the slow and steady progress we as a nation have made on many fronts. The case of an old and unrelated video showcasing Bohra Muslims licking spoons and plates in order to demonstrate zero food wastage, being manipulated and re-circulated as a deliberate attempt to spread the contagious virus is illustrative.

As Cristina Tardaguila, the associate editor of the International Fact-Checking Network said, “It’s amazing what the mixture of panic and the lack of good data can do to our brains and to our capacity to sort fact from fiction. COVID-19 is the biggest challenge fact-checkers have ever faced.”

To tackle such a monstrous menace, strong measures are needed on multiple fronts. Our public institutions, starting with the State, media, educational organisations, etc., have to come up with varied measures. Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa said that “if anyone blames the entire Muslim community for some isolated incident,” he would “take action against them.” We need consistent pronouncements like that -- followed by law and order mechanisms -- to weed out mal-information. Traditional media organisations, on their part, need to strengthen fact-checking and myth-busting teams, counter misinformation with information, resist the urge to be the first to break a news story, focus on serving authentic and relevant content, and offer more explainers.

Social media platforms, besides outrightly banning untrustworthy and insensitive content, need to put in stringent measures to authenticate sources. Educational institutions should make critical thinking and media literacy a core part of their curriculum. And an informed citizenry -- like ‘The Indian Scientists’ Response to Covid-19’ (ISRC) voluntary group with more than 500 members from diverse, enriching backgrounds enabling quality science communication -- ought to play a proactive role and regulate credible and responsible information.

Whether it is a pandemic or an infodemic, the viral spread ought to be checked with concerted efforts from all fronts.

(The writer is faculty, Department of Media Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University))