The Washington Post reports that WhatsApp users in parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe are getting flooded with conspiracy theories, false reports of the disease’s spread, and fake cures. Governments are not only trying to restrict the spread of COVID-19; they’re also battling misinformation: “In Singapore, where regulators just last week warned about ‘unsubstantiated information over WhatsApp,’ health officials now are able to pass along daily, credible updates to anyone who signs up,” the Post reports.
The conspiracy theories and fake cures aren’t just being spread from one individual to another. WhatsApp groups can have hundreds of participants, and the same fake message may go to more than one group—one woman in Pakistan reported seeing such information in two different groups dedicated to parrot breeding.
Facebook and Twitter can crack down on misinformation being shared publicly, but Facebook—which is WhatsApp’s parent company—can’t do the same for the encrypted service. And the big social media companies haven’t been so interested in following the very good advice of Tolu Ogunlesi, a new media adviser to the president of Nigeria: ”If I had a message to the tech companies, it would be to invest a lot more money in digital literacy.”
Source: http://feeds.dailykosmedia.com/~r/dailykosofficial/~3/nRO32cHkefc/-Coronavirus-misinformation-is-threatening-to-become-a-pandemic-of-its-own-on-WhatsApp