The Infodemic—Fake news of a vanquished virus alarms Mexico; Covid-19 awakens Europe to its foreign disinformation threat
Welcome back to Coda’s Infodemic and thank you for joining us! We are tracking how global disinformation is shaping the world that is emerging from the Covid-19 lockdown. Before we dive in:
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And now, from Latin America to Brussels, here are a few narratives — both real and fake — that have grabbed our attention and deserve yours.
Information that the World Health Organization has issued a warning about the Nipah virus, which is “more deadly than Covid-19,” is circulating on social networks in Mexico. “Nipah” is even trending on Twitter. The Nipah virus is real and does, indeed, have a high fatality rate, but the news is fake. The Spanish-languge online magazine Animal Politico reports that the last time the WHO launched a health alert for the Nipah virus was in 2018.
The WHO is also under attack in Ukraine.Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper has collected numerous examples of rapidly spreading WHO disinformation from Russian-language websites, blogs and YouTube. It is not totally clear whether or not the campaign is coordinated, but it looks like it, given the consistent, overarching message. The latest briefing from the WHO on asymptomatic transmission is being presented in such a way that it appears the organization has said that there is no pandemic at all.