Combating disinformation during the COVID-19 era
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As the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swept across Europe at the beginning of the year 2020, citizens were told to stay at home and to follow social distancing measures to flatten the curve. This led to many people spending much more time on the internet than usual, searching for information as they were eager to know more about what was currently happening in the world. Consequently, an overwhelmingly large amount of disinformation and misinformation began to disperse online. However, some European countries, such as Slovakia, are more susceptible to the spread of hybrid threats and false information. How does this affect the COVID-19 crisis, what are the consequences and how can we tackle the spread of disinformation? While disinformation is mainly focused on achieving political or financial goals, misinformation is often unintentional dissemination of falsehoods. However, this is not a new phenomenon. For years, governments and social media companies stayed idle as false information unwittingly spread online and headed down the rabbit hole. Ignoring the problem, which has been accelerating for many years, it has now intensified even more during the ongoing crisis. Since December 2019, when the coronavirus began to spread, social media users have been spreading misinformation uncontrollably and rapidly.¹ The WHO declared that we do not only have to fight against the pandemic, but also against the “ infodemic “. ² The spreading of false information can seriously harm our democracies and the public health of our citizens.
have already taken some measures to curb the spread of disinformation such as more fact-checking on public posts or banning of fake accounts. Authorities question whether this is sufficient. While the US government has a relatively
The Globsec survey indicated that out of 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Slovakia is the country most prone to believing in conspiracy theories, with more than half of the population.³ One of the many negative consequences of being exposed to disinformation might be the rise of extremism. Even some national politicians have been denying the existence of COVID-19, spreading fear and misleading information, which erodes the citizens’ trust in democratic institutions. Moreover, the population is getting polarised towards this point of view, which can help far-right parties grow. However, before considering who should be held accountable, the crucial challenge for our democracies lies in the protection of free speech without undermining and limiting this fundamental human right embodied in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, whilst reversing the horrendous consequences coming out of this “ infodemic “ as well. Since the beginning of the pandemic and ahead of the US presidential elections, some social media platforms
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