No one is immune to misinformation, not even the young

THE year 2020 has shown that anyone can have strong and loud opinions about viruses, regardless of whether he has a degree in health sciences.

If, like me, you scrolled through social media, you would have experienced a glut of information about the Covid-19 pandemic, with the latest being all kinds of claims about the new vaccines.

To the untrained eye, it is often hard to separate fact from falsehood. And yet we must, or risk wrong information slowing societies’ ability to fight the pandemic.

Like the battle against Covid-19, everyone plays a role in stopping the spread of wrong information, especially young people who are the most digitally savvy.

Last December, the World Health Organisation warned that an abundance of misinformation risks undermining the global response to Covid-19. While the scale of social media and messaging apps keeps people informed and connected, this also amplifies attempts to spread wrong information.

Regardless of intent, passing on false information has grave consequences.

Being misled by wrong or partial information can also affect lives. It takes only one vulnerable host to buy into this online falsehood and make it go viral, by spreading it to his contacts on social networking websites and instant messaging platforms. This is serious, especially when it alters one’s behaviour to make misinformed choices.

For example, some believe that Covid-19 vaccines can genetically modify humans. The claim has been debunked by scientists, doctors and fact-checking websites such as The Straits Times.

Yet, it has led some to refuse to get vaccinated.

While taking the vaccine is a personal choice that should be respected, refusing to do so has social consequences. With at least 80% of Singapore’s population needing to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19, society cannot risk decisions tainted by false claims derailing efforts to stop the pandemic.

No immunity to falsehood

If you are in your 20s, like me, you might assume that older, less digitally savvy people who unquestioningly forward messages on WhatsApp group chats are more susceptible to misinformation online.

However, a study published by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) last December shows that, just as everyone is vulnerable to Covid-19, everyone is susceptible to misinformation, not just the elderly.

Over two-thirds of more than 2,000 respondents across all ages were fooled by a manipulated “news article”. Around 46.9% of those who were supposedly the most adept at seeking credible information, including young Singaporeans with tertiary education, trusted this doctored article.

Those who were tricked failed to notice that the source URL had been changed, that false authorities were being cited and that there were multiple grammatical errors.

The findings suggest that digital and information literacy is low in the republic. The findings also highlight the need for younger Singaporeans to be doubly vigilant, as they spend more time on social media.

Making efforts to verify

So if anyone can be fooled, what should an active social media user do to be savvier about information he comes across?

Some types of misinformation are easily identified. Take, for example, claims about miraculous home remedies to cure Covid-19 such as gargling warm water with salt or injecting disinfectant into the body. A quick search online will reveal their fictitiousness.

But many other Covid-19 claims take more effort to verify.

For instance, messages were circulated widely about serious negative health effects from the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine which led to six people dying during late-stage trials.

The facts: While six people did die during the trials, only two of them had been given the vaccine.

As explained by the United States Food and Drug Administration, these deaths occurred at a similar rate to those in the general population. In other words, it is just as probable for them to have died of natural causes.

Part of the task of detecting such misinformation comes with questioning and verifying whether the piece of information is true.

This includes looking out for geographic location, timeframe and the source of information.

The next step would be to verify it with trusted information sources.

For example, an anxious friend in her 20s forwarded a clip allegedly depicting riots that were occurring in London, where I was studying, last March. Curious, I checked a range of British news outlets and location tags on social media, which revealed no sign of any disturbance.

Upon watching the video again, I noticed a bus poster for a movie that was released in 2011. This indicated that the video was shot during the London riots that year, and not last year.

I then found out that the video was forwarded on her family chat group from another source. The recycled footage has since been removed from YouTube.

All it took was a quick Google search to verify the details of the clip. Such basic checks can help curb the further spread of the falsehood.

Speaking out against misinformation is just as crucial as noticing it.

Even when Singaporeans recognise false information, they tend to ignore it, according to the study by IPS. This is problematic because it means that the person or organisation might continue spreading the false information to other vulnerable individuals.

It also limits the effectiveness of content moderation strategies that rely on users to report suspicious information on social media by “flagging” it.

As the Covid-19 virus mutates, it is important to not let falsehoods cloud our judgment.

To sum up: Misinformation can endanger our health, so it’s time to be more careful. Check what you read. If you spot something wrong, speak up. If unsure, it’s probably best to delete and not pass on the doubtful information.

If everyone learns these basic verification skills, he can collectively play a role in moderating private chat groups and raising the quality of information that flows around.

After all, wrong information that goes viral can prove to be a real health threat, just like the virus itself. — The Straits Times/ANN