Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are five ways that local public health establishments in low- and middle-income countries can battle online misinformation during a crisis such as COVID-19. 

• Where can donors offer support to help respond to misinformation? 

• Read more on deceptive COVID-19 misinformation. 

Public health agencies confronted by the threat of online misinformation might already possess low-cost solutions to tackle it. They just need to reinforce some traditional tenets of risk communication and upgrade others.

This was the main lesson to emerge from our experience producing The Batsapp Project, a documentary podcast on outbreak misinformation. The series chronicles how the public health establishment in Kerala, India wrestled with viral online misinformation during the 2018 Nipah outbreak—which claimed the lives of 17 of the 19 individuals who were infected. We interviewed clinicians, health officials, senior administrators, journalists and activists at the forefront of the Nipah response.

Their stories revealed 5 insights of particular relevance to local public health establishments in low- and middle-income countries seeking to combat online misinformation in relatively resource-constrained contexts:

  • Monitor social media manually and through crowdsourcing
  • Provide psychological support to cope with the outbreak and misinformation
  • Leverage trust in physicians
  • Bring local leaders together on a common platform
  • Engage news media, ensure transparency

Read the full article about tackling misinformation by Santosh Vijaykumar at Global Health NOW.