Misinformation about the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has spread faster than the virus itself. Images, videos and text messages on social media and closed messaging apps have witnessed racist explanations for the origin and spread of the epidemic to misleading and false claims about its cures. Images and videos attributing the coronavirus to Chinese cultural and culinary practices have gone viral and in many regions, the absence of credible and quality health information about the epidemic, rumours and fear have led people to latch onto misinformation circulating widely on popular online platforms.
The workshop has two objectives: (a) build an understanding of how and why health misinfodemics strikes and affects us during public health epidemic outbreaks and (b) collaboratively address visual misinformation around Covid-19.
Meedan will lead this interactive workshop by presenting highlights from its collaborative project that tracked patterns of Covid-19 misinformation in different regions. We will also introduce participants at the workshop to our platform Check. Check is being used widely to curate, annotate and verify information. As part of the proposed workshop, participants will collectively fact-check visual misinformation related to Covid-19. Through this exercise we will talk about the need for effective and quality health fact-checking standards and the need for collaborative efforts to address widespread misinformation around public health epidemics.
Organised in association with MisinfoCon.