UNESCO – Combating the Disinfodemic: A Casebook and Guide

Why Access to Quality Information Matters
To make sense of the disinfodemic, consider its opposite –
information as a foundation for knowledge. It is access to
information, not disinformation, that makes the right to freedom of
expression meaningful and helpful to societies. Verifiable, reliable
information, such as that produced in science and professional
journalism, is key to building what UNESCO calls “Knowledge
Societies”. The disinfodemic works diametrically against this.
Today, the internet is the key distribution mechanism for both
disinformation and information. It underpins the transmission
function in the flow of messages, by means of which the production
of both disinformation and trustworthy information connects
through to the reception of this content and engagement with it.
The institutions enabling this transmission (internet companies and
the news media, for example) are not pure carriers nor platforms,
but have their own specific interests in gatekeeping and shaping
the flow of content. Their role in transmission increasingly goes
beyond the reception/consumption of content in a first cycle of
communication, and instead enables a hard-to-control spiral of
onward reproduction and elaboration of these messages.
In this context, two aspects of broadband internet access can be
noted: the positive and the negative.
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High-speed digital connectivity is a lifeline helping us to cope
with the pandemic by:
• Allowing many people to learn, work and keep social ties from
home in times of shutdown,
• Carrying direct government-to-citizen public health information,
• Enabling credible journalism about COVID-19 to reach large
audiences,
• Connecting medical experts to one another (and to intermediaries
like journalists) in real-time.
At the same time, mass connectivity brings with it the
dangers of false and misleading content being produced and
shared virally:
• In a growing number of cases, the consequences of the
disinfodemic have been fatal. Many citizens are being duped,
leaving them unable to understand and implement scientifically
grounded preventive measures. People are dying as a result of
complacency, or resorting to false ‘cures’.
• Instrumentalised for political, racist, xenophobic, sexist, or
other reasons, online disinformation about COVID-19 can fan
polarisation and further hatreds – at a time when global unity is
more needed than ever.
• Journalists and medical personnel who expose disinformation
are finding themselves targets of disinformation-fuelled attacks.
• Some responses to the disinfodemic undermine the advantages
of using the internet for legitimate freedom of expression – which
is one of the best antidotes to false content.