Welcome to the infodemic

BY NOW, the chapters of COVID-19 have continued to write themselves into 2020. As people start looking towards the hope of a new year, the global health crisis reminds them that, although another chapter begins, the previous pages cannot be rewritten. 

Over the past 11 months, researchers have scrambled to uncover the complexities of COVID-19. In their attempts, they have discovered that the crux of the virus extends well beyond the body. As the pandemic continues to spread, the virus has taken up space in a new vessel.

“This era, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) coined, became known as an “infodemic.””

Social media has become the new host for COVID-19. Since the start of January and April, when news of the virus first spread from China, the use of social media as an information-gathering tool increased. With it, politically charged disinformation and conspiracy theories. This phenomenon, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) coined, became known as an “infodemic.” The following interactive Google Trends graphs depict the peak popularity of the search terms “COVID-19” and “Coronavirus” from the end of 2019 to 2020.

These graphs are useful in understanding the influx of Google searches for pandemic-related information at the beginning of 2020. Still, questions remain about the validity of the information people interact with online: This year alone, 3.4 million social media accounts were suspected of spreading false information.  

Fake News

The popularity of the word “fake news” has worked to undermine the values of quality journalism. While some people argue that fake news describes outright false information, many critics have suggested the term means news that is intended to deceive. These two definitions are useful in popularising the problem, but still, send conflicting messages.  

Although fake news has become a prominent feature of the media landscape, the term itself has become empty and overused. Considering that social media giants, like Facebook and Twitter, seldom regulate their platforms, much of the fake news people interact with stems from problematic actors in the digital world.  

The unfiltered nature of social media has contributed to the current infodemic. But still, politicians continue to blame traditional media outlets for false information without considering the dark underbelly of popular platforms: Here, Foreign actors, bots, and conspiracy theorists have quickly, and efficiently, spread dangerous information across the internet.  

While the final chapters of 2020 continue to reshape and change, society must be reminded that these challenging and traumatic pages belong to a much larger book.