Many worldwide have now caught COVID. But during the pandemic many more are likely to have encountered something else that’s been spreading virally: misinformation. False information has plagued the COVID response, erroneously convincing people that the virus isn’t harmful, of the merits of various ineffective treatments, or of false dangers associated with vaccines.
Often, this misinformation spreads through social media. At its worst, it can kill people. The UK’s Royal Society, noting the scale of the problem, has made online information the subject of its latest report. This puts forward arguments for how to limit misinformation’s harms.
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