An exploration of how fake news is taking over social media and putting public health at risk
An exploration of how fake news is taking over social media and putting public health at risk
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/hir.12320
复制
发表时间：
2021-06-01
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Khan, Aqsa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bin Naeem, Salman;Bhatti, Rubina;Khan, Aqsa
最近的统计数据显示，近四分之一的人死亡，400万人受到冠状病毒（COVID-19）引起的轻度或严重健康问题的影响。这些数字正在迅速增加（世界卫生组织，2020年5月3日c）。在这一流行病期间，人们对误导性或不准确信息的传播非常关切。本文报道了一项小型研究，该研究试图确定COVID-19错误信息的类型和来源。作者识别并分析了1225条COVID-19假新闻报道，这些报道来自事实核查器、流言终结者和COVID-19仪表板。鉴于世卫组织总干事提出的“我们不仅在与大流行作斗争，我们也在与信息化作斗争”的关切，这项研究意义重大。该研究的结论是，COVID-19信息流行病充满了虚假的说法，半心半意的阴谋论和伪科学疗法，涉及病毒的诊断，治疗，预防，起源和传播。假新闻在社交媒体中无处不在，使公众健康处于危险之中。危机的规模和误导性信息的普遍存在要求科学家、卫生信息专业人员和记者履行其职业责任，帮助公众识别假新闻。它们应确保公布和传播准确的信息。
Recent statistics show that almost 1/4 of a million people have died and four million people are affected either with mild or serious health problems caused by coronavirus (COVID-19). These numbers are rapidly increasing (World Health Organization, May 3, 2020c). There is much concern during this pandemic about the spread of misleading or inaccurate information. This article reports on a small study which attempted to identify the types and sources of COVID-19 misinformation. The authors identified and analysed 1225 pieces of COVID-19 fake news stories taken from fact-checkers, myth-busters and COVID-19 dashboards. The study is significant given the concern raised by the WHO Director-General that 'we are not just fighting the pandemic, we are also fighting infodemic'. The study concludes that the COVID-19 infodemic is full of false claims, half backed conspiracy theories and pseudoscientific therapies, regarding the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, origin and spread of the virus. Fake news is pervasive in social media, putting public health at risk. The scale of the crisis and ubiquity of the misleading information require that scientists, health information professionals and journalists exercise their professional responsibility to help the general public identify fake news stories. They should ensure that accurate information is published and disseminated.