MANILA, Philippines – Have you received an unverified message related to the coronavirus in the past few days? Maybe it was forwarded by your tita in one of your group chats on Viber?
During crises such as a pandemic, unverified reports and misleading posts online can spread as fast and as wide as the virus itself.
This is not surprising. With almost everyone locked inside their homes during the quarantine, Filipinos crave for information that could help allay any feelings of uncertainty and fear. (READ:
However, the disinformation network that casts doubt on official and established sources of reliable information makes Filipinos – who are currently driven by fear and uncertainty – especially gullible to misleading information.
Recently, the World Health Organization said that the "infodemic" or the unprecedented surge information – be it truthful or false – has become a severe deterrent in combating the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Therefore, staying at home is not the only thing that quarantined Filipinos can do to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. It also becomes imperitive for online-savvy Filipinos to be responsible when sharing information online.
How can netizens help separate fact from fiction in the time of coronavirus?
MovePH, Rappler's civic engagement arm, is organizing a series of webinars aimed at training participants to spot disinformation online and combat it. The first run will happen on Friday, April 3.
Here's how you can register:
– Rappler.com