Case Study 2: Social Issues in Information Technology in the Philippines

Infodemic: its risks and approaches for prevention

The World Health Organization's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated at the

2020 Munich Security conference that “the world is not only fighting a pandemic but also
an infodemic” as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic started to wreak
havoc in the Philippines and throughout the world (Lancet 2020). Ghebreyesus was
referring to the cascade of falsities that was undermining efforts to stop the spread of
the fatal disease and spreading faster than COVID-19. Infodemic is a collective term for
misinformation and disinformation, two distinct but connected ideas more commonly
referred to as "false news" and a component of the so-called "information disease."
However, what exactly are they? Why would individuals spread false information and
trust it? What impact has fake news had on the epidemic response? How has fake news
affected the country's economy? How can it be regulated?

Even in the past, there was fake news. But given modern communication means,
especially social media, it is now more easily made, disseminated, and multiplied. As
news may spread faster on social media, especially dramatic stories, which the majority
of misinformation producers construct to market fake news, fake news can cause
substantial harm with far-reaching effects. False information can be classified into two
categories: misinformation, which is defined as "the dissemination of false information,
even if not deliberate or malicious, based on unsupported conjecture and in light of
various considerations," and disinformation, which is defined as "false information is
spread deliberately and maliciously for personal gain or to cause harm to another
entity." (Schulman and Siman-Tov 2020). Furthermore, according to Pennycook and
Rand (2019), there are two possible types of motivations for spreading false
information: deliberate and unintentional. It may be a result of bullshit receptivity or the
"I don't care if it's true or not" attitude, according to a study in cognitive psychology.
People that behave in this way have little respect for the truth and may readily spread
information whether they believe it to be true or untrue.
 False information has major consequences and a wide range of effects because
news can spread faster on social media, making it difficult to evaluate its effects.
Furthermore, sensational stories, which the majority of misinformation producers
fabricate to sell fake news, have widespread appeal, which explains how fake news
could spread more quickly than actual news.
It is essential to raise public knowledge of the fact-checking tools that are
available, engage citizens, teach children to think critically from an early age, integrate
media literacy into the core curriculum, and see the fight against fake news as a social
and moral obligation. By doing these, we could effectively prevent the spread of fake
news and impede infodemic.

REFERENCES:
Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit
receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking. Journal of personality, 88(2),
185–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12476

Schulman, R. and D. Siman-Tov. 2020. From biological weapons to miracle drugs: Fake
news about the coronavirus pandemic. INSS Insight No. 1275. Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel:
Institute for National Security Studies. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep23529

The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 20, Issue 8, 2020, Page 875, ISSN 1473-3099,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30565-X.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147330992030565X