Spain’s fact-checkers become a target
Sometimes
it feels like the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished” was invented with
fact-checkers in mind. This week, it applies to the ones in Spain.
Not
long after WhatsApp decided to limit message-forwarding in an effort to stem
the spread of misinformation, supporters of Spain’s right-wing Vox party
started a campaign of digital harassment against fact-checkers from Newtral.es
and Maldita.es.
The
WhatsApp move to limit
forwarding – viral messages can now be forwarded to only one “chat” at a
time – had nothing to do with fact-checkers or any content they debunked. It
was designed, as the Facebook-owned platform said
in announcing the decision, to cut down on the spread of falsehoods about
the coronavirus. Forwarded messages on WhatsApp are seen as a vector of
misinformation, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the problem.
So
how did fact-checkers in Spain end up getting blamed for it?
Both
Newtral and Maldita are part
of the (Poynter-owned) International Fact-Checking Network, which (in full
disclosure) recently
received $1 million in support from WhatsApp, and another
$1 million from its parent Facebook, aimed at helping fact-checkers develop
and expand projects focused in the battle against misinformation related to
COVID-19.
But
that support had nothing to do with WhatsApp’s decision about forwarding. The
fact-checkers were just a convenient target. As Carlos del Castillo put
it in eldiario.es on Monday: “Independent content verification methods have
become some of the most troubling elements for politicians who base their
messages to the public on false data or unverified information.”
The
campaign against the fact-checkers included personal intimidation on social
platforms, coordinated attacks on forums and other false claims that would
easily go viral, del Castillo wrote.
The
situation in Spain is extreme, but not unique. Just as in Brazil, the
Philippines, Hungary and the United States, elements of the far right are
highly suspicious of the media in general, and fact-checkers in particular, and
quick to blame them – and the platforms – for what they say is “censorship” of
their views.
But
in Spain the situation got so tense over the weekend that WhatsApp
had to release a statement Monday clarifying that its decision had nothing
to do with the fact-checkers.
Newtral
and Maldita
also defended themselves with thorough debunkings, calling the campaign false
on its face, and thus easily exposed. Perhaps it's another sign of the times
that fact-checkers must now debunk false assertions about . . .
fact-checkers.
–
Susan Benkelman, API
. . . technology
·
Wealthy
tech company founders like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are often the subjects of
conspiracy theories. The
BBC reported on one that combines the two men.
·
Writing
in the journal Nature, misinformation researcher Joan Donovan of the Harvard
Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center said social
media platforms must do more to take down false content and “flatten the
curve of misinformation.”
. . . politics
·
President
Trump
is the most cited politician in the CoronaVirusFacts
database — and this isn't just because he has been caught spreading
misleading content. It has to do with the fact that there are also a bunch of
falsehoods about him all over the world.
- The New York Times on Monday published a long article about how Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted health disinformation against the United States in the last decade.
o
Putin’s
agents, wrote longtime science reporter William J. Broad, “have repeatedly
planted and spread the idea that viral epidemics — including flu outbreaks,
Ebola and now the coronavirus
— were sown by American scientists.”
- Myth Detector, a fact-checking organization in Georgia, released a detailed report on Wednesday showing how pro-Russian websites have been promoting COVID-19 misinformation in the region. Cloned versions of the CNN and the BBC websites were registered in Russia in the last couple of months, with IP addresses placed in Saint Petersburg.
. . . science and health
·
With
attention focused on claims about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat
COVID-19, The
Washington Post FactChecker on Sunday published a three-minute video
carefully debunking the idea that the medicine cures the virus, as some
politicians across the globe have been preaching. On Tuesday, the video already
had more than 500,000 views across all platforms.
·
The
pandemic has fueled media
literacy projects in the United States, India and Brazil, Poynter’s
Harrison Mantas reported this week. A number of different fact-checking
organizations have managed to offer online and even live workshops.
False news regarding crimes and deaths related to COVID-19 have
become a trend in India. Just this week, fact-checkers from BOOM debunked two
horrible falsehoods of this kind.
On April 10, a video
showing a man jumping off a building went viral in India with a caption
that falsely suggested he killed himself because he had lost his family to the
new coronavirus. BOOM spent some time on it and concluded that the video had
actually been recorded in Philadelphia, back in 2015. It didn't have any
connection with the pandemic.
Three days later, the same team examined a hoax about a woman
who had drowned
her children because she was unable to provide them food during the Indian
lockdown. Fact-checkers contacted the police and published an article debunking
the story. According to the investigation, the woman killed her five kids due
to marital discord. The family had enough food.
The hoaxes might be getting traction because of actual instances
of suicide in India connected to the spread of the new coronavirus. The first
occurred in February, in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, as reported
by The
Telegraph. The second was in Delhi, in mid-March, and was reported by India
Today.
What we liked: Debunking these falsehoods isn't easy . BOOM
fact-checkers had to examine graphic images and read terrible details about the
kids' deaths while trying to find the truth. It’s an indication of the
emotionally charged work fact-checkers have to do these days.
— Cristina Tardáguila, IFCN
1. Here is a list of three unbelievable zombie-falsehoods
about the new coronavirus — and how people can help fact-checkers stop them.
2. The
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has published a new report on
how people in six countries access and rate news and information around the
coronavirus. For a good summary, here’s a Twitter
thread from the institute.
3. Dangerous coronavirus conspiracy
theories targeting Muslims are spreading in India, The
Guardian reported.
4. Three U.S. senators, all Democrats, have
asked domain name registrars and hosting sites to combat scams and
misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been
running her own debunking operation on Twitter. She knocked down a
hoax saying she signed an executive order on coronavirus distancing in the
close presence of several people. (It was an old photo). In another case, she
had to clarify that her order did
not ban the sale of children’s car seats.
via Cristina and Susan
