Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusandAlex Ng

Opinion | Coronavirus: how the WHO is leading the social media fight against misinformation

To tackle the coronavirus ‘infodemic’, the World Health Organisation is working with social media companies such as Google and Tencent to fight rumour and myth, and ensure correct information is easily and prominently available

Everyone has a duty to share wisely, click carefully and not feed the trolls

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Why you can trust SCMP

Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusandAlex Ng

Published: 9:00am, 13 Feb 2020Updated: 12:23pm, 24 Feb 2020

Since the turn of the year, the new coronavirus has spread across the world at breakneck speed. Exacerbating the outbreak is misinformation, which is spreading faster online than the coronavirus is on the ground.

This “infodemic” is hindering efforts to contain the outbreak, spreading unnecessary panic and confusion, and driving division, when solidarity and collaboration are key to saving lives and ending the health crisis.

Obscure conspiracy theories abound, from claiming the virus is an effort to depopulate the world, to claiming biowarfare. False theories are circulating rapidly online in every country in the world, and in many more languages than the United Nations’ official set of six.

This challenge is not unique to the health community. From politics to parenting, the spread of misinformation on the internet is one of the biggest challenges of our time. In the context of the current public health emergency, misinformation has the potential to hinder disease control and containment, with life-threatening consequences.

Yet everyone, in China and across the world, deserves access to accurate information on how to protect themselves and their families from the new coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation is playing an important role in meeting this critical need.