Infodemic refers to an excessive amount of information concerning a problem such that the solution is made more difficult. Some experts believe that an infodemic, or an excessive amount of both correct and incorrect information, is spreading around the world. The worst-case scenario is that inaccurate information is potentially spreading faster than the virus itself, causing people to make poorly informed decisions. The WHO has declared misinformation and fear as some of the biggest challenges they face with the new coronavirus.

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Challenges posed by Infodemic:

• WHO is leading the effort to slow the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
• But a global epidemic of misinformation—spreading rapidly through social media platforms and other outlets—poses a serious problem for public health.
• every outbreak will be accompanied by a kind of tsunami of information, but also within this information you always have misinformation, rumours etc,
• But the difference now with social media is that this phenomenon is amplified, it goes faster and further, like the viruses that travel with people and go faster and further.
• In a country such as India, where 400 million turn to a single messaging app for sharing news and stories about any and everything, more than 240 million are on Facebook and, often, using it as the predominant source of news, a critical mass of misinformation leads to misdirected behaviours.
• In times of crises, cybersecurity is critically important, he stressed, adding that a huge number of people under lockdown or movement restrictions are now working and studying remotely, making them susceptible to cybercrime.
• Some instances are hard to ignore some dominant narratives: Bioweapons origins of the coronavirus (false); Bill Gates was behind it (false); UNICEF’s recommendations for warding off infection (unauthorised).

Measures taken up:

• Immediately after COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, WHO’s risk communication team launched a new information platform called WHO Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN), with the aim of using a series of amplifiers to share tailored information with specific target groups.
• WHO is also working closely with UNICEF and other international agencies that have extensive experience in risk communications, such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
• Social-media companies must sort, rank, and prioritize true and reliable information now more than ever.
• Web companies such as Pinterest have already introduced headers and links on their homepages with information about Covid-19, for example.

Way forward:

• Maintaining a system of fact-checking and tough standards regarding COVID-19 and weeding out messages, hashtags and transmitters that fail to meet them.
• The traditional media has a key role in providing evidence-based information to the general public, which will then hopefully be picked up on social media.
• For both social and conventional media, it is important that the public health community help the media to “better understand what they should be looking for, because the media sometimes gets ahead of the evidence”.
• We, as users, have a responsibility to find better ways to seek advice or substitutes for that dopamine rush of sharing a message instantly liked, commented on and shared by others.
• As a society, much like our global response to the coronavirus, we cannot rely on bottom-up decisions.
• We need decisive leadership from the top. In the digital nations we inhabit, Facebook, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, it is imperative that the leaders of these nations act – and act now.
• It is about time, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook/WhatsApp), Sundar Pichai (Google/YouTube), Jack Dorsey (Twitter) and Zhang Yiming (TikTok) made some tough calls, much like what their own political leaders have done.
• It would be more useful if instead of a coy “Forwarded” note, WhatsApp had a note that said, “For Reliable Medical Advice, Check Out the WHO” or some other trustworthy medical authority

Conclusion:

It is time to step up and help us all practise social media distancing by enforcing stricter standards. Beyond India, the entire developing world relies on your platforms for news about the pandemic. If there ever was a time to demonstrate vision and leadership, this is the time for the digital leaders to flatten the curve of the infodemic before it flattens the most vulnerable populations on the planet.