Alison Barrett writes:
In recent weeks, we have seen many examples of the pervasive and harmful impacts of misinformation and disinformation.
Conspiracy theories in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States – including that meteorologists are controlling the weather and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has pulled out of hurricane-affected areas of North Carolina – have been impeding response and recovery efforts.
In Burkina Faso, on the African continent, scientists working on a US-funded anti-malaria program have been subject of propaganda undermining their research.
Locally, misinformation and disinformation is undermining democracy and public health during the Queensland election campaign, with false claims being made on everything from election processes, to youth crime and COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, councillors in Port Hedland, Western Australia, recently voted in favour of a motion to suspend mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, citing discredited safety concerns. WA Premier Roger Cook was not impressed.
Calls to action
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, this week called on governments, internet and social media companies “to prevent the spread of harmful lies and promote access to accurate health information”.
Addressing the World Health Summit in Berlin, he said that Internet and social media platforms have “turbo charged the spread of mis- and disinformation”, contributing to mistrust in vaccines and other health interventions.
WHO is working with a range of companies and researchers and partners to understand how misinformation and disinformation spreads, who is targeted, how they’re influenced, and what we can do to counter this problem.
“But we must also make sure that when we seek the trust of others, we are ourselves trustworthy,” he said. “We cannot assume or expect trust; we must earn it.
“That begins with listening to the people we serve, to understand their needs and preferences, and the reasons they believe mis- and disinformation…It means providing and promoting health information that is accurate and culturally sensitive.”
This applies to all of us – governments, health providers, researchers, funders, civil society – and WHO, he added.
Increasing misinformation and disinformation are a worrying trend, with “real-world consequences”, particularly as the US presidential election approaches, and climate and other global emergencies become more intense.
Efforts to address misinformation and disinformation are, ironically, often undermined by the very problem they are trying to address.
This is happening with the Australian Government’s efforts to more effectively regulate digital platforms (as noted in Croakey’s submission to an inquiry into Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024.
South Australian and New South Wales
Meanwhile, a two-day, two-state summit was held in Sydney and Adelaide last week to progress discussions on the impact of social media on society, with a particular focus on young people.
In the latest raft of measures to address the harms of social media, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas announced at the summit that from 2025, all high schools in the state, public and private, will be resourced to deliver age-appropriate, evidence-based education on social media and online safety.
“These programs will empower young people by arming them with accurate, up-to-date information” for example on privacy, image and sexual based abuse and coercive control, Malinauskas said. It will also teach students to better recognise scams and misinformation.
At the second day of the summit, on Kaurna Land/Adelaide, the Welcome to Country delivered by Jakira Telfer highlighted the significant impact of social media on the referendum for the Voice to Parliament.
“Just last year…there was a big hurt that hit our community, and I think social media played a big part in that, especially for our youth…and we’re still hurting from that.
“I think also that’s what social media might be missing, is that emotional vulnerability,” she said.
One of the key takeaways from the summit is the importance of including children, teenagers and young people in the design of healthy social media – as was also discussed at the World Health Summit.
Frances Haugen, data scientist and social media accountability advocate, told the summit that “if we don’t work with kids, we will not develop the right solutions”.
Haugen – a data scientist and former Facebook product manager who became a whistleblower in 2021, revealing internal documents that exposed the company’s prioritisation of profits over user safety – said she is cautious about age limits on social media “as an exclusive intervention”, but the current ways in which social media platforms and companies operate is unsafe.
“Social media can expand people’s horizons, but we don’t have to accept the exact product” of social media that exists today, she said.
There are opportunities and ways to build healthy social media, Haugen said, but we will only be able to if we understand what children want and need from them.
Haugen advocates for improved data transparency and accountability from the social media companies.
She told the ABC that the European Union’s (EU) Digital Services Act is a good example of digital regulation as it is focused upstream at the source of online harms, rather than solely downstream, at the harms themselves.
“One of the challenges with technology is it moves so fast that wherever you put the fence, the companies run around it,” Haugen said.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on misinformation and disinformation
