The fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is also a fight against misinformation.
As early as March 2020, MIT Technology Review wrote that Covid-19 is the first true social media “infodemic.” As defined by the Forum on Information and Democracy (FID), infodemic is the overabundance of information some accurate and some not occurring during an epidemic. This makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. To end the infodemic, the media consumer, journalists, social media platforms and governments would each play a role.
FID created a working group on the fight against infodemic and its response to information chaos. The group co-headed by Rappler Chief Executive Officer Maria Ressa, and former member of the European parliament and International Policy Director at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center Marietje Schaake released 12 main goals and 250 recommendations on what the social media platforms need to do to fi