COVID Disinformation Generate "Real-Life Harm" - Expert

A viral video circulated in Hungary last April showed Hungarian police officers throwing old people in trucks to force them to go into quarantine. In reality though, the video was shot in Azerbaijan during an opposition rally in October 2019.

This is only one of 16,000 COVID related fact checks that have been detected and documented by the one of the largest databases in the world, which is led by the U.S.-based International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and the Poynter Institute, TURAN's U.S, correspondent reports.

"Those fact checks come from more than 86 countries and they cover more than 40 languages to help the public to see what is being viral and what is in circulation in different countries and how the fact checkers themselves should be prepared for the next wave of misinformation" Baybars Orsek, IFCN director told reporters on Friday, during a press briefing organized by the Washington Foreign Press Center.

In the first couple of months of the pandemic the IFCN's assessment of the information problem around COVID-19 was that it was misleading,
"it was usually an attempt to undermine the importance of the pandemic," Orsek said.

But right now, he added immediately, "it is alarming to see that the motivation that we see behind the COVID-19 misinformation, disinformation is to generate real-life harm and undermine the work that is done by credible organizations around the world."

"Hopefully we will do more work on this front with the support that we have from the broader journalistic community as well."

The IFCN's database is updated daily.

The participating members use "simple tools" to collaborate on the massive crowdsourcing project. "They use a shared spreadsheet and instant messaging apps to collaborate on what they are going to fact check on that particular time of the day and whether they need support and help from other fact checkers. "

The database is available in English and in Spanish and in Portuguese, and the organizers have regional initiatives to help translate the content into different languages as well.

Alex Raufoglu
Washington D.C.