Coronavirus misinformation surges, fueled by clout chasers

Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, said tech platforms provide the ideal way for people to make money off public crises. “Just as platforms have provided the capacity to mobilize massive crowds, it also scales scams and fake charities in ways that the public falls prey to,” she said. “We’ve seen similar attempts at keyword squatting by influencers using ecological crises and other significant events to raise money for themselves.”

Nat Gyenes, who leads the Digital Health Lab at the technology nonprofit Meedan, and researches technology and health at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, said public health officials and organizations will have to compete harder if they’re to outpace misinformation.

"If authorities like the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren't the Instagram, Twitter or TikTok accounts that people source for information about the coronavirus outbreak, the entities they encounter may do more harm than good," Gyenes said.

Even when reliable sources are on platforms where people increasingly go for health information, often the language is so specific, so nuanced, that good information is eclipsed by more sensational claims and fearmongering elsewhere.

"It is a challenge that health information authorities will have to address, adapting their communication methods to combat the memetic transfer of misinformation,” Gyenes said