UN tackles ‘infodemic’ of misinformation and cybercrime in COVID-19 crisis
From selling fake coronavirus cures online to a cyberattack on hospitals’ critical information systems, criminals are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis, the United Nations has warned, as it also steps up its fight against a proliferation of false information about the virus.
Our common enemy is #COVID19, but our enemy is also an “infodemic” of misinformation.
To overcome the #coronavirus, we need to urgently promote facts & science, hope & solidarity over despair & division.https://t.co/FRluVQIvIP
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 28, 2020
“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at a gathering of foreign policy and security experts in Munich, Germany, in mid- February, referring to fake news that “spreads faster and more easily than this virus.”
WHO explains that infodemics are an excessive amount of information about a problem, which makes it difficult to identify a solution. They can spread misinformation, disinformation and rumours during a health emergency. Infodemics can hamper an effective public health response and create confusion and distrust among people. ...
No, deliberately spreading malicious disinformation and perpetrating fraud is not a protected human right.
#disinformation #misinformaton #propaganda #FakeNews #UnitedNations #UN #Covid19 #infodemic
