To combat what the World Health Organization has called an “infodemic” around COVID-19, BBC News Africa has launched a searchable library of fact-checks debunking popular myths and misinformation about coronavirus in Africa.
You can explore the top stories on this theme and also search the library of fact-checks.
Source: COVID-19 in Africa: Fighting Fake News about Coronavirus
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This technical brief details the steps and considerations programs can take to develop an overarching social media strategy to disseminate COVID-19 messages and combat misinformation. This document also provides a list of relevant tools and resources for implementation.
Source: Using Social Media to Disseminate COVID-19 Information
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Religious leaders throughout Bangladesh – including in the Rohingya refugee camps – have agreed to play a key role in the battle against the COVID-19 virus.
Mosque megaphones are traditionally used by imams to call the faithful to prayer. But they now serve an extra purpose: to disseminate key public health messages.
Imams play an important role in Bangladesh because they hold the trust of millions of worshipers in what is a predominantly Muslim country. UNICEF and the Islamic Foundation Bangladesh (IFB) – a government organization that works under the Ministry of Religious Affairs – have worked together for the wellbeing of women and children since 2017.
Source: Religious Leaders Play Key Role in Battle against COVID-19
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On April 10th, GRID launched CoronaCombat, a video game that raises awareness and provides accurate information on the new coronavirus and related COVID-19 disease. CoronaCombat not only provides players with reliable information but also empowers them to question misinformation. The player goes through a fact-seeking, myth-busting journey aimed at combating the new coronavirus, all while having a great time! All content in the game is sourced from WHO, CDC and JHU websites. The current version is available in English and Urdu languages and can be played for free here.
What is GRID?
Gaming Revolution for Inspiring Development is a social impact gaming studio where we create mobile games to inspire positive behavior change. GRID is mainstreaming games in the social sector, not only in the US but also globally. By creating context-vigilant games (in local languages) for low-end smartphones, GRID has opened up the possibility of using games to educate, engage and empower people in all aspects of their lives irrespective of where they live. We have created games on reproductive health (MoHiM, Nari Paila (made in partnership with IRH) & SurrEndo) on compassion for animals (KritterKneads), climate change (EarthFenders), Math learning (Calculasia) and are currently working on games on financial literacy (FINechANCE), opioid crisis, child protection and entrepreneurship.
Source: CoronaCombat: Leveraging Games for COVID-19 Awareness
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Because of COVID-19’s strict physical distancing measures, people are heavily reliant on maintaining connectivity using global digital social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, to facilitate human interaction and information sharing about the virus.
In this article, the authors discuss some ways in which social media has undermined effective responses to COVID-19. They consider how various groups could respond to these challenges—especially government leaders, social media companies, and healthcare providers. Ultimately, these actors each have roles to play in preventing social media from being weaponised to sow distrust and further endanger public health, while also ensuring that social media can fulfill its essential civic function of facilitating good faith political expression and discourse.
Source: Building Trust while Influencing Online COVID-19 Content in the Social Media World
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Internews works with Translators without Borders and Standby Task Force to collect and analyse rumours and misinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease. Data is being collected in six languages across Asia including: Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and Urdu. These bulletins are intended for use by journalists and community workers.
This bulletin relies on social media data collected by monitors working for Internews and partner organisations. Data is collected both manually and with the use of specialist monitoring platforms. Content will focus based on key trends in social media data collected in our target language groups and aims to provide tools and resources to help journalists and community workers to respond to misinformation in their work.
Source: Social Media Rumor Bulletin
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Verified is an initiative of the United Nations, in collaboration with Purpose, to provide content that cuts through the noise to deliver life-saving information, fact-based advice and stories from the best of humanity. it is an initiative to encourage everyone to check the advice we share. Users register to receive trustworthy COVID-19 information, fact-based advice, and human-interest stories.
By promoting and sharing Verified content, everyday people can play a crucial role in the work of Verified by spreading reliable information about COVID-19 to their friends, families and social networks, with the goal of saving lives and countering misinformation. Organizations, businesses, civil society and media platforms partner with Verified to spread information that helps protect people, communities and forges connections across the planet.
Verified’s team of communicators, creatives and researchers produce content based on the latest information and guidance from the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies. We work with leading experts on misinformation First Draft.
Verified works with the support of Luminate, IKEA Foundation and UN Foundation and partners all over the world.
Source: Verified
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The COVID-19 pandemic is this century’s largest public health emergency and its successful management relies on the effective dissemination of factual information. As a social media platform with billions of daily views,
YouTube has tremendous potential to both support and hinder public health efforts. However, the usefulness and accuracy of most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 have not been investigated. A YouTube search was performed on 21 March 2020 using keywords ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’, and the top 75 viewed videos from each search were analysed.
The result was that over one-quarter of the most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 contained misleading information, reaching millions of viewers worldwide. As the current COVID-19 pandemic worsens, public health agencies must better use YouTube to deliver timely and accurate information and to minimise the spread of misinformation. This may play a significant role in successfully managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: YouTube as a Source of Information on COVID-19: A Pandemic of Misinformation?
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This page offers Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter resources to encourage people to practice social distancing and help spread accurate information on COVID-19. Users can copy and paste into their own feed. One can also download an image.
Source: One by One: Target COVID-19 Social Media Toolkit
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With funding from the H2H Network, Internews is responding to the spread of COVID-19 by combatting the spread of rumours and misinformation. This project aims to support busy newsrooms/journalists with the resources and content they need to responsibly address misinformation in this crisis.
This project is in partnership with BBC Media Action, Translators without Borders and Evidence Aid. With valuable support from Standby Task Force and Anthrologica.
The goals of the project are to:
Source: Internews COVID-19 Microsite
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This website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Breakthrough ACTION Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-17-00017. Breakthrough ACTION is based at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP).The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Breakthrough ACTION and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or Johns Hopkins University.
