The Infodemic: European scientists working on surveillance issue a warning; Bolsonaro’s dangerous rhetoric
I’m Ilan Greenberg, the publisher and editorial director of Coda back again to track the global spread of coronavirus disinformation, and what is being done to combat it.
Here are a few narratives — real and fake — that have caught our attention:
An apparently unabashed success story so far, Vietnam has reported keeping infections below 400 cases and deaths tamped down to exactly zero by imposing strict social distancing rules, cascading public quarantines, and slamming borders shut. Now the country is also an enthusiastic early adopter of another measure growing in popularity: clamping down on speech in the name of public health. Reports are trickling in on an online clampdown.
- This comes on the heels of neighboring Laos joining Vietnam in arresting people for posting coronavirus information on Facebook that challenged government narratives on the disease.
- Russia’s remote northern region of Komi has emerged in press reports as the third highest infected region in the country, after the main population centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. That has outraged regional government officials --not the prevalence of Covid-19 cases nor the inability of the public health infrastructure to tackle the spread. It’s the media reporting on the situation that has enraged the government, as this remarkable New York Times story documents.
On Friday I posted in this newsletter about the latest speech infringements coursing through India as the country girds for Covid-19 spread. The country also is running amuck with theories on a virus cure that bolster the government’s anti-secular Hindutva campaign, such as the miracle properties of cow urine.