The first * false * connection made between 5G and the coronavirus was an article featured on the French conspiracist website, ‘Les Moutons Enragés,’
A few months later more * false * claims that CoVID-19 was linked to mobile towers built in Wuhan in 2019, had circulated through Facebook.
This is just one of the many false stories that have circulated online in the last few months.
Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at Australian National University, Dr Will Grant says the world is not only fighting an pandemic, but also the spread of misinformation.
He describes social media, as the “information vacuum” where there is a snowball of fake CoVID-19 news.
Dr Grant says because there is little known about the virus, people are desperate to look for answers online, and this in turn leads to the rapid dissemination of misinformation.
“We don’t have all the facts, no one has enough knowledge about what’s going to happen, people are wanting to make decisions in this information vacuum,” he said.
“They’re trying to look after their family and their friends and themselves; they’re trying to find out ok, what do I need to do? And within that environment misinformation spreads rapidly because we all have the desire to find out what to do next.”
He says that social media can be like an echo chamber where news becomes distorted, and giving people reasons to alter their behaviour on unfounded information.
“This type of information leads to panic buying, yes, it’s because we’re in an environment where such information is plausible.”
Dr Grant says social media algorithms filter information on individuals’ news feeds, but people also seek out information that confirms their own biases.
“We are much more receptive to information that correlates with our existing beliefs and ideas,” he said.
“Information that goes with your existing biases is far more likely to spread through the network.”
He says though we are contributing to the infodemic happening right now, we are doing this subconsciously.
“We don’t seek out misinformation, we seek out information.”
But Lecturer in Political Philosophy at Flinders University Dr Connal Lee says that seeking out misinformation takes more of a concerted effort, that people tend to intentionally choose to engage with outlets that appeal to our views and beliefs.
“We are aware that our news feeds typically reflect our existing views back to us,” he said.
“We engage in confirmation bias daily, only exposing ourselves to views that we already agree with.”
He says that misinformation is “highly infectious” online as algorithms will disseminate information to the relevant echo chambers of social media who will then reshare this ‘news’, eliciting a cycle of information spreading quickly.
“I’ve seen this happening on Twitter with the 5G theories, each member of the thread supports the other and together they reinforce each other’s opinion.”
Though we are witnessing how misinformation disseminates online, Dr Grant says the are real-life ramifications are escalating during the outbreak.
Dr Grant says we need to look at what’s happening globally with the infodemic as it has caused people to exercise their democratic rights in an unexpected way.
“We’re having a very interesting time for democracy right now,” he said
“There are quite vocal protests against the lockdowns, we’re seeing nurses on one side and libertarians on the other.”
Despite the protests, one positive thing that could emerge from all of this is the push for more economically stable media channels supported by the government.
Dr Grant says that people will demand more funding for media outlets in the hopes that this will help combat misinformation.
“People will want the policies and environment to support vibrant and capable news organisations that can do proper and accurate reporting.”
Will Grant Interview Mixdown by Charisa Bossinakis
Senior Lecturer in science communication at the Australian National University Dr Will Grant talks to journalism student Charisa Bossinakis about the spread of misinformation online
Featured photo by mikoto.raw via Pexel
