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News on COVID-19
As the coronavirus spreads with unsettling speed across the world, so has press coverage of hoarding. Food. Medical supplies. Toilet paper. Panicked citizens with frustratingly little control over a pandemic are instead seizing upon one thing they can do, which is stock up for what feels like an apocalypse. News outlets can’t get enough of […]
By Zoë BeeryYouTube has allowed some peddlers of disinformation about the coronavirus to earn money from advertising, according to a Tech Transparency Project investigation, despite its promise to limit the ability to creators who produce quality videos about the pandemic. TTP found advertising on several YouTube videos promoting questionable coronavirus treatments, like home remedies, meditative music, and […]
By Tech Transparency Project“The whole point about zombies, actually, is you really can never fully kill them,” warns Nobel Laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in the latest episode of “Pitchfork Economics.” Before you conclude that one of the most important economists of our time has lost his mind, you should know that the zombies Krugman is […]
By Paul ConstantWhen medical authorities in China claimed they’d cured more than 750 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, using pseudoscience, one major British newspaper made sure there was space for China’s party line on the story. “Traditional Chinese medicine ‘helps fight coronavirus,’” declared the March 3 headline, in the online version of the […]
By Dean Sterling JonesIt appears that the world is heading toward a near-worst case scenario in the coming months for representative democracy. The combined disruptive nature of social media and a global pandemic is creating a pressure point that should lead policymakers to fear for the future of democratic institutions. In the same way there is an acknowledgement of the risk of this contagion to our way of life in the short-run, […]
By Bodhi HardingeYou might feel scared or confused about what is actually happening with the coronavirus. You are probably reading a lot of conflicting information online. One thing we can all do right now to help each other is to stop spreading misinformation. It creates more panic and we are all stressed out enough as it is. […]
By Katy ByronGoogle said that it’s providing more than $6.5 million in funding to fact-checkers and nonprofits fighting misinformation around the world, with an immediate focus on the coronavirus. Why it matters: Google wants to be proactive throughout the coronavirus crisis to support the spread of accurate and safe information. […] Source: Google gives $6.5 million to […]
By Sara FischerTop social media companies are adopting stricter rules to limit scams and thwart misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic. But posts continue to surface that violate them — underscoring how the companies are engaged in an infinite game of whack-a-mole that’s tough to win. A page with more than 1,200 followers was peddling N95 masks on […]
By Cat ZakrzewskiOn March 18, an email went out from the World Health Organization soliciting donations for its Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund, to support WHO’s work tracking and treating the novel coronavirus. The sender address was “donate@who.int,” and who.int is the real domain name of the organization. But the email is a scam. It was not sent […]
By Joss Fong and Cleo AbramFact-checkers around the world have encountered a specific odd chain message about COVID-19 that has nothing to do with false cures or who is immune. It’s about helicopters. And, quite often, it talks about not one but five of them. The CoronaVirusFacts / DatosCoronaVirus alliance, coordinated by the International Fact-Checking Network since January, will update its database for the […]
By Jules DarmaninTwitter has frequently been criticized for acting slowly, if at all, to curb the spread of misinformation. But with an unprecedented pandemic sweeping the U.S., the social media platform is taking unprecedented steps to rein things in, particularly when it comes to world leaders and the top rung of right-wing crankery. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro […]
By Caleb Ecarma