Coronavirus: Time to crack down on people spreading misinformation, scare, say experts

On Tuesday, a message forwarded on WhatsApp claimed there were four positive cases of coronavirus in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, triggering panic shuttering of all

On Tuesday, a message forwarded on WhatsApp claimed there were four positive cases of coronavirus in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, triggering panic shuttering of all general stores in the neighbourhood.

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Two days before that, a man on Twitter shared that someone, who frequently visited his home, had tested positive for the virus in another neighbourhood of west Delhi.

As per government agencies, both pieces of information were false.

Experts said the spread of such misinformation has grave consequences and could spell trouble as the health crisis worsens.

Dr Jugal Kishore from the department of community medicine at Delhi’s Safdarajung Hospital said the authorities must utilise all legal powers to penalise at least some people involved in sharing misinformation. “There are several laws for punitive action against those who intentionally or unwittingly share misinformation. This is the critical time to exercise those powers. If they do that, the message will go out and the menace of misinformation can be curbed,” said Dr Kishore.

He said that people needed to be made aware of the difference between a person testing positive for the virus and someone only quarantining themselves on the suspicion that they could have come in touch with someone carrying the virus.

“In these times, people are assuming that even those who have quarantined themselves have tested positive. They are subsequently sharing wrong information. Management of information is a professional discipline and in these times they need to be in the hands of public health experts,” said Kishore.

He said that the authorities must ensure that private individuals are not sharing misinformation and that only information shared by certain identified platforms is trusted.

WhatsApp, a message sharing platform on which a large number of such messages are forwarded, said that they understood that users are reaching out to their loved ones on their app more than ever and that on Wednesday they had pledged $1 million to combat disinformation related to the pandemic.

The amount, WhatsApp said in a statement, will be granted to the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

“But ultimately, it is the users who need to exercise restraint in what they share and forward,” an official of WhatsApp told HT .

WhatsApp also launched a Coronavirus Information Hub to provide “simple, actionable guidance for health workers, educators, community leaders, nonprofits, local governments and local businesses that rely on WhatsApp to communicate,” the company said in a statement.

“We know that our users are reaching out on WhatsApp more than ever at this time of crisis, whether it’s to friends and loved ones, doctors to patients, or teachers to students. We wanted to provide a simple resource that can help connect people at this time. We will also continue to work directly with health ministries around the world for them to provide updates right within WhatsApp,” said Will Cathcart, head of the company.

The Delhi Police, meanwhile, said that their focus at this stage is to create awareness about the spread of misinformation and they are using their social media accounts to do that.

“Once we begin identifying people who are using social media to spread rumours or misinformation, we’ll begin taking legal action,” said Delhi Police spokesperson, Mandeep Singh Randhawa.