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At last count, NewsGuard.com found 132 sites publishing false claims about the coronavirus pandemic.
Some pose as legitimate news sources with the names of “reporters” but no way to contact them, the online news watchdog found.
Many succeed in dumping BS into your newsfeed – often from the other side of the world -- in the tremendously popular Internet version of the telephone game.
But here’s the thing: You aren’t getting it from the site that produced it. It comes from a friend you trust – who trusted someone who trusted someone, etc.
Before long, people actually believe that Bill Gates has COVID-19, African migrants brought it to Italy or 5G technology is to blame.
Eight sites identified by NewsGuard in the U.S. alone were selling purported cures and remedies.
These include colloidal silver, which are liquified silver particles that can actually be hazardous to your health. Others include air fresheners, coconut oil and antioxidant that its distributors falsely claim can help.
Even more insidious are the conspiracy theories about the source and spread of COVID-19.
They begin with a post on a small, obscure and unreliable site. Then a larger unreliable site picks it up. The number of eyeballs that see it – and, more significantly, folks who share it – skyrockets.
There’s a parallel of sorts: False theories spread at warp speed online when people who believe them share them. They tell 20 friends -- and so on, and so on. Before you know it, countless readers are infected with what they believe is truth.
Or as NewGuard calls the phenomenon: a “misinformation force multiplier.”
Tracing back to the original source is extremely difficult. But it's not impossible.
Among those traced by NewsGuard’s “Misinformation Monitor” is a conspiracy-theory site in India that has few likes, shares or comments yet posted a story that managed to go viral.
The headline? “Coronavirus Bioweapon – How China Stole Coronavirus From Canada And Weaponized It.”
According to the so-called scoop, two Chinese spies smuggled the virus into Wuhan from Winnipeg, but it “leaked” out and, well ….
It all could have died right there, with a reported 1,600 likes.
But an equally unreliable U.S. political and financial blog picked up on the story, tweaked it a bit and got 24,500 social media engagements, NewsGuard reports.
Here’s where the gasoline is thrown on the fire: The story was picked up by another site that has more than 4.2 million followers.
Next stops: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit.
By the time reputable sources of reliable information brought the lie to light, tens of thousands of Americans had already shared it.
The Internet is full of small, unreliable sites spewing all kinds of lies that not only increase fear and anxiety over the virus but also fuel hatred against immigrants.
Given the progression of the virus, not to mention the increasing pubic anxiety, even more bogus stories will find their way into your feed just itching for you to share them.
Newsguard, which was co-founded by journalist/entrepreneur Steven Brill, hopes it can reassure readers with truth instead of theories. It continues to compile a list of sites whose claims are proven false.
GO TO: https://www.newsguardtech.com/misinformation-monitor-march-2020/
When in doubt, you can always go to the Centers for Disease Control site: CORONAVIRUS 2019 COVID-19 CDC.
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