The coronavirus infodemic: misinformation in times of pandemic

A little bit of context

Since February 26th, Brazil has been living with the new global threat called coronavirus. A new virus, which first appeared in China and has caused public health catastrophes in some of the greatest countries in the world, as everyone should be aware at this point, since, not only on TV, on the radio or in the newspapers, but mainly in groups of Whatsapp, the pandemic has become the subject most talked about in recent weeks.

What happens is that, precisely because of this pulverization of information made possible by the Internet and its various tools, we are currently experiencing a state of infodemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeing itself torn between fighting the virus and raising awareness about the false information circulating on the subject. “The 2019-nCoV outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ – an over-abundance of information – some accurate and some not – that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it,” says the WHO in a recent report on the new coronavirus.

WHO finds itself at this crossroads, having to divide its efforts between the containment of the pandemic and the control of misinformation on the topic, because the dissemination of misleading information or the ones that have no scientific basis can, in this situation, harm as much or more than the disease itself.

A major problem occurs when misinformation is spread by influential and prominent people in society. This was the case, for example, when U.S. President Donald Trump released a study that states that hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, would have responded well in patients with COVID-19. However, the study still lacked, from the scientific point of view, more robust results, considering that the sample of patients used was very small, reason why the responsible scientists could not conclude that the drug would be really effective in the treatment of the new virus. But Trump, in divulging the study, provoked a wave of confidence that led the Brazilian president to reproduce the information, which led to a massive rush to the drugstores, causing the drug to run out quickly in commerce, thus harming those patients who need the medicine for your regular treatments for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

As a result of the study’s disclosure, the rush for the drug and the illusion that it would bring the cure to coronavirus carriers, a man died and his wife was hospitalized in the United States after ingesting a form of chloroquine used to clean aquariums in attempt to become “immune” to the virus. In a similar situation, twenty-seven people died in Iran after drinking adulterated alcohol, because they believed a rumor that alcoholic beverages would cure COVID-19.

In addition, here in Brazil, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, President Bolsonaro’s son, went on to reproduce the fallacy, first raised by the American president, that the new coronavirus was created and spread on purpose by China to bring down the main Western economies and take a leading role in the world. The Congressman also brought to his speech the pejorative nickname of “Chinese virus” to disqualify the pandemic, which is now reproduced by his main supporters, considered as right-wing influencers. Such an attitude by the president’s son almost caused a diplomatic incident with China, whose ambassador insisted on responding to the absurdities spread by the Congressman.

As if that were not enough, the Brazilian president insists on doubting the medical and scientific authorities that recommend social distancing as the only effective way, until now, to reduce the contamination by the coronavirus, encouraging the population to return to their normal activities, because, in his view, the Brazilian economy will break down if normal activities are not resumed immediately.

All this to say that…

Misinformation is an evil that must be fought as vigorously as the pandemic of coronavirus. Especially when the spread of false information comes from the highest levels of government.

This is the first pandemic in the post-truth era. The term, which was considered the word of the year 2016 by Oxford Dictionaries, was also defined by this entity as a noun “that relates to or denotes circumstances in which objective facts have less influence in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs”. 

Therefore, doubting the guidelines of the medical authorities, as the President does, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is something very particular about this post-truth era, in which beliefs tend to predominate over knowledge, which is, as a rule, evidence-based.

Knowledge is built based on a set of procedures used to study reality, legitimized by scientific institutions and used, in this case, to base guidelines and recommendations on the disease that is now being sought to combat. Opinion, in turn, derives from personal beliefs and perceptions about what reality should be like. It is nothing more than guesses and popular belief and manifests the principle “I believe, so it is true” that guides the so-called post-truth.

And what does the Internet have to do with it?

The problem is that application providers are full of content based on beliefs, often being monetized, that is, the person responsible for their creation is disseminating information that is not necessarily true and being paid for it. The remuneration is usually given for the placement of ads.

Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Youtube favor the replication of rumors and lies. Content sharing is often done by acquaintances that users trust, which increases the appearance of legitimacy of fake or fabricated content. The algorithms used by Facebook, for example, cause users to receive, for the most part, information that corroborates their point of view, since the “calibration” of the algorithm is done, among other things, by the likes and the pages followed by the user. As a result, filter bubbles are formed that isolate the narratives within what the user is already familiar with, making it difficult to discover or view different contents.

Some platforms have taken actions in the last few weeks regarding the dissemination of false or unscientific content against the coronavirus pandemic. Twitter suspended the accounts of Flávio Bolsonaro, Allan dos Santos and the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, for 12 hours, for violating the rules of the platform, which considered that posts made by the three of them could put people at risk during this coronavirus crisis. In a similar situation, Youtube deleted a video by the writer Olavo de Carvalho, known as the guru of the bolsonarists, in which he claims that the coronavirus pandemic does not exist.

From a legal point of view, the Marco Civil da Internet, in its article 19, correctly assures, in our opinion, the civil responsibility of the content creator in these cases, the platform being responsible only in the case of non-compliance with a court order that determines the removal of the questioned content. This legal provision has the important role of ensuring freedom of expression and preventing censorship of content by the platforms themselves, leaving the judiciary, in our view, correctly, the task of defining what should or should not be removed and why, in weighing the various rights under analysis in the specific case.

But what can we do about this situation?

The conclusion we reach is that we, as a society, were dragged into a social scenario in which technology dominates different aspects of our lives and this has intensified since the quarantine left us at home and transferred almost all of our external activities (work, shopping, social interactions, among others) for online environments. It is necessary, first, to educate people to check information and to seek reliable sources, such as the formal press and the competent parts, in this specific case, WHO, primarily.

In summary, we must all appreciate responsibility for sharing information and news, since, as demonstrated at the beginning of this text, false information can lead to death. In contrast, when done with awareness and responsibility, spreading news can contribute to the growth of other people and to building bridges between a community. Similarly, we must demand from the media the commitment to the truth and the facts. In major crises like the one we are experiencing now, the Internet has great potential to unite purposes, but it is up to us to use it for this goal.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors.
Illustration by Freepik Stories