Misinformation during a national emergency is not new. In this current health crisis, the “coronavirus pandemic is generating a tidal wave of information—some of it accurate, some not so much—that has saturated social and traditional media,” as was stated in Science Magazine last week. 

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently held a session at AAAS called Detecting, Combating, and Identifying Dis and Mis-information. One of the speakers was Emma Spiro (University of Washington), who spoke on Misinformation in the Context of Emergencies and Disaster Events.

Rumors, defined by Spiro as a “story that is unverified at the time of communication,” are widely spread during crisis events as people seek out any knowledge that might help them. Rumoring can help to alleviate anxiety during information voids and acts as a form of collective sensemaking, but it can also lead to the spread of misinformation. False rumors (or misinformation) are dangerous, because they can cause people to make the wrong decisions, including decisions that endanger themselves or others. Social media has transformed informal communication by expanding the pool of available information and increasing the speed at which information (and misinformation) can be spread. For more information, see the upcoming CCC blog on this full panel on Thursday.

Spiro’s colleague Kate Starbird (University of Washington), recently posted an article on the Medium on How a Crisis Researcher Makes Sense of Covid-19 Misinformation.

“In the connected era, the problem isn’t a lack of information but an overabundance of information and the challenge of figuring out which information we should trust and which information we shouldn’t trust.”

Starbird offers three recommendations:

• “First, I ask us as information participants to tune in to how our anxiety fuels information-seeking and information-sharing activities that may make us susceptible to spreading false rumors and/or disinformation.”
• “Second, I recommend to crisis communicators that they rely on the growing knowledge of experts (for example, medical professionals and epidemiologists) and work to remain consistent across their agency or agencies.”
• “Finally, I implore political leaders and political communicators to reflect upon how they may be contributing to the problem — by spreading misinformation and disinformation and by casting doubt on the science and recommendations of experts within our response agencies.”

Additional researchers are generating articles in this evolving space. Leysia Palen (University of Colorado, Boulder) has started a blog “to help connect research on disaster response and crisis informatics to events and experiences as the pandemic unfolds.” Her articles are based on research and personal “reflection during the novel coronavirus pandemic.” CCC Executive Council member Nadya Bliss (Arizona State University) was recently interviewed by ASU Now on “What to listen to — and what to filter out.”

On Thursday, April 9th at 7PM ET, Kate Starbird and others from the University of Washington and Washington State University will present on “Surviving the Coronavirus Infodemic: UW & WSU present a statewide conversation on healthy digital practices.” See the description below.

“COVID-19 is more than just a physical illness — inaccurate and incomplete information spreads just as rapidly around the globe, complicating efforts to contain the virus and keep communities safe and healthy. The state of Washington has been at the forefront of the crisis, taking action since COVID-19 first appeared in the U.S. Join experts from the University of Washington and Washington State University for a livestream summit addressing coronavirus misinformation. You’ll have a chance to participate from home as panelists share tools and tips for concerned citizens to cut through the confusion and build healthier information practices.” 

If you are interested, please register here.

At the CCC we know that everyone is dealing with a lot in these unprecedented times. We are continuing to work on behalf of the computing research community to catalyze research, but we also want to provide ways to help the community. This post is the second in a series of posts about ways computing researchers are using computing to adapt and help in these times. We hope you find something that may help you, either now or in the future.