Coronavirus: how the WHO is leading the social media fight against misinformation

To tackle the coronavirus ‘infodemic’, the World Health Organisation is working with social media companies such as Google and Tencent to fight rumour and myth, and ensure correct information is easily and prominently available
Everyone has a duty to share wisely, click carefully and not feed the trolls

Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusandAlex Ng

Published: 9:00am, 13 Feb 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

Since the turn of the year, the new coronavirus has spread across the world at breakneck speed. Exacerbating the outbreak is misinformation, which is spreading faster online than the coronavirus is on the ground.

This “infodemic” is hindering efforts to contain the outbreak, spreading unnecessary panic and confusion, and driving division, when solidarity and collaboration are key to saving lives and ending the health crisis.

Obscure conspiracy theories abound, from claiming the virus is an effort to depopulate the world, to claiming biowarfare. False theories are circulating rapidly online in every country in the world, and in many more languages than the United Nations’ official set of six.

This challenge is not unique to the health community. From politics to parenting, the spread of misinformation on the internet is one of the biggest challenges of our time. In the context of the current public health emergency, misinformation has the potential to hinder disease control and containment, with life-threatening consequences.

Yet everyone, in China and across the world, deserves access to accurate information on how to protect themselves and their families from the new coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation is playing an important role in meeting this critical need.

While working with governments, researchers and scientists to determine how the coronavirus spreads and the ways to treat it, the WHO is also fighting the “infodemic” of rumour, myth and misinformation.

As the leading international health body, the WHO uses its web and social media platforms to disperse relevant public health information across the world.

Social media companies are on the front lines of the information challenge. Companies including Google, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, Tencent and others support the WHO.

Google has launched an SOS Alert with the WHO, making our coronavirus resources more easily accessible when searched for using Google’s search engine. This includes safety tips, the latest information on the outbreak response, technical resources and Twitter updates from the WHO.

Videos on YouTube, which is owned by Google, that purport to be giving information about the coronavirus are now framed by a banner redirecting users to the WHO web portal.

Similarly, if you enter “coronavirus” into the Facebook search function, the first result encourages users in most countries globally to look to the WHO for the latest information.

Simultaneously, WHO social-media experts are working round the clock to distribute factual information in multiple languages for people to share, so that the concerned public are kept in the loop and not left with a vacuum in which misinformation is the only available update.

With 99 per cent of all coronavirus cases being in China, the WHO is working hard to share accurate and actionable advice in Chinese. Tencent plays a vital role in this regard, offering digital tools through WeChat, promoting WHO articles, information and infographics daily and collaborating on rumour verification.

It is not just social media. The WHO also engages journalists and traditional media outlets across the world, staging daily press conferences to ensure that correspondents have access to, and use, the right information. Broadcast and print outlets have a responsibility to put public health before clickbait headlines that spread panic.

The second coronavirus is a ‘moron strain’ driving social media panic

While there is an urgent need to deal with false claims around the coronavirus, tackling misinformation in public health does not stop with just the new outbreak.

Informing the public in Beni, Butembo and beyond to protect them from Ebola goes hand in hand with the vaccine roll-out. Fighting myth and delivering evidence have been central to defeating vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and polio, or raising awareness on the risks associated with vaping.

The WHO will continue to promote verified information, partner tech firms and work with media houses to ensure that people have access to the facts, that conspiracy theories are debunked and that incorrect information is corrected quickly, so public health can be protected and promoted.

In addition, a wider strategy is needed to debunk pseudoscience and strengthen trust in everything from vaccination to public institutions. Misinformation thrives where trust in the authorities is weak. A prescient 2019 report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board emphasised the importance of social cohesion and trust in fostering effective responses.

In a fast-evolving disease outbreak, there is a fine line between the deliberate spread of misinformation and the well-intentioned but potentially still damaging redistribution of false claims.

Governments and tech companies must do their part to tackle the former, but it is everyone’s duty, whether you are a newspaper editor or social-media user, to be vigilant about the information you share and promote.

The course of the coronavirus outbreak will depend on getting the right information to the people who need it. Share wisely, click carefully and do not feed the trolls.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is director general of the World Health Organisation. Dr Alex Ng is vice-president of Tencent Healthcare, and a member of the WHO’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group

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