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There has been an enormous amount of fake news about COVID-19 going around since the start of the pandemic. From misleading prevention tips to miraculous discoveries of vaccines, fake news about COVID-19 is as dangerous as the virus itself.
“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus, and is just as dangerous.” And if we don’t tackle this, he went on, “we are headed down a dark path that leads nowhere but division and disharmony,” said Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in February 2020 at the Munich Security Conference.
Fake news can be spread easily nowadays across social media as content can be shared within seconds to thousands of people at once. This could lead to a detrimental effect to someone’s thinking, which will later affect false thoughts among the society at large.
On March 16, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) established an official Telegram account for the Sebenarnya.my portal, that focuses on its efforts to curb the spread of fake news through social media, which includes the issue of misinformation about COVID-19.
Malaysian are strongly encouraged to check the authenticity of the news they received and can do so by visiting https://t.me/sebenarnyamy, a portal that verifies the news fast and efficiently.
Verify all information and think twice before pressing the forward button. Stop the spread of fake news!
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
