The Conversation: How to address coronavirus misinformation spreading through messaging apps and email. “During times of crisis, like the current COVID-19 pandemic, people need access to reliable information in order to keep themselves safe, manage risk and avoid becoming a burden on others or health-care systems. However, ensuring that people have access to the right information when they need it has become a major challenge due to widespread digital misinformation.”
social media
Sydney Morning Herald: Social media awash with fake treatments for coronavirus
Sydney Morning Herald: Social media awash with fake treatments for coronavirus. “Drinking bleach, snorting cocaine, smoking and consuming alcohol will not treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Nor is there any evidence supporting the use of the anti-malarial drugs mentioned by Trump. Yet the list of quack remedies grows as the deadly disease sickens and kills thousands of people around the world.”
New Yorker: What the Coronavirus Crisis Has Changed About Social Media, and What It Hasn’t Changed
New Yorker: What the Coronavirus Crisis Has Changed About Social Media, and What It Hasn’t Changed. “In the run-up to the 2016 election, social media was more or less overrun by junk. In the current crisis, social-media companies have been more proactive about preventing the most overt liars and chaos agents—financial scammers, Russian spies, the President of the United States—from monopolizing their platforms. And yet this is where the distinction between disinformation and misinformation, which might normally seem pedantic, becomes relevant.”
OneZero: A Pseudonym Helped Me Cultivate a Healthier Relationship With Social Media
OneZero: A Pseudonym Helped Me Cultivate a Healthier Relationship With Social Media. “We face a universal problem: how to manage your personal and professional identities. How much is too much when it comes to what you share? How much do you rely on social media to manage your life or to fill a void? It all comes down to boundaries. Boundaries are about building imaginary fences around real things.”
TechJaJa: How is Uganda’s Social Media Tax impacting Citizens Two years later?
TechJaJa: How is Uganda’s Social Media Tax impacting Citizens Two years later?. “As of 23rd March 2020, Uganda has only confirmed one case of the novel coronavirus. The President of Uganda recently issued directives which saw all schools in Uganda closed effective March 20, all gatherings banned, the border’s closed, international flights banned, citizens urged to stay home and many others in order to curb the spread of the virus. But some of the measures for curbing this virus such as having people work remotely, students study at home and an increased reliance on digital transactions, are all hindered by Uganda’s social media and the mobile tax that was introduced in the country in July 2018. “
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’
CNET: Coronavirus memes help an isolated world cope with ‘existential dread’. “As COVID-19 spreads to more cities and claims more lives, meme accounts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit have cranked out more content seeking light and humor amid the darkness and uncertainty. Memes poking fun at everything from hoarding toilet paper to going stir crazy while in quarantine have dominated social media feeds.”
CNET: Governments could track COVID-19 lockdowns through social media posts
CNET: Governments could track COVID-19 lockdowns through social media posts. “Your posts on social media have been harvested for advertising. They’ve been taken to build up a massive facial recognition database. Now that same data could be used by companies and governments to help maintain quarantines during the coronavirus outbreak.”
