For a handful of disinformation researchers, the information crisis that has unfolded around the coronavirus pandemic seemed inevitable.
Joan Donovan, Claire Wardle and Kate Starbird have been preparing for this moment for a decade, capturing the data of the internet, tracking disinformation campaigns and calling for traditional and social media platforms to take responsibility for their spread.
Some of those calls resonated. Tech platforms have taken steps to banish hate groups and include context around misleading information. But the efforts also highlight the severity of what the World Health Organization declared “a massive infodemic.”
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Source: These disinformation researchers saw the coronavirus ‘infodemic’ coming | NBC News