The UN launched an initiative to combat COVID-19 misinformation. (Representative)
New York:
India supports global initiative of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to stop the spread of misinformation and fake news related to coronaviruses on social media and also co-authored an interregional statement to combat “infodemia” or the information manipulated. on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We support the @ANTonioguterres UN Communications Response #VERIFIED initiative and call for global action to fight #infodemic during # COVID19,” tweeted India’s permanent mission to the United Nations.
India, as well as Australia, Chile, France, Georgia, Indonesia, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Senegal and South Africa have co-authored a interregional declaration on infodemias and so far 132 countries have joined the declaration which focuses on the need to disseminate factual content to combat disinformation about coronaviruses.
The UN has launched “ Verified ”, an initiative to combat the growing scourge of COVID-19 misinformation by increasing the volume and scope of reliable and accurate information.
Through this initiative, the UN is calling on people around the world to “pause” before sharing content that may be false or contain false information on social media.
The break campaign is launched Tuesday, coinciding with Social Media Day, and consists of colorful videos, graphics and gifs that focus on sharing only scientifically reliable and accurate social media content.
“False news is causing global damage. Widespread misinformation is hampering our ability to progress on many of the world‘s most pressing issues: from the fight against the pandemic to the fight for racial justice and the climate emergency, “says the Pause campaign. .
As part of the global anti-disinformation movement on June 30, Verified and the United Nations are asking people around the world to adopt a simple behavior change when they feel their emotions go online: “Pause. Pay attention before to share. “
The Pause campaign will be available in Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese.
“One of the ways it (disinformation) is spread is the way people share. The idea of the break is: be careful before sharing. We hope that “be careful before you share,” starting to be a social norm that people have in mind and this will allow for a change in personal behavior, “said Melissa Fleming, who oversees the global communications effort. UN.
Thanks to Verified, the UN has recruited so-called “digital first responders” to counter false news.
These ~ CHECK ~ speakers, more than 10,000 of whom are subscribed to the ~ CHECK ~ daily and weekly feeds, range from fact checkers in Colombia to young journalists in the UK, and the number of registrations is growing at a rate of around 10% per week, according to the UN Department of Global Communications.
The transregional statement, co-written by the 13 nations, said that in times of COVID-19 health crises, “the spread of the” infodemia “” can be as dangerous to human health and safety as the pandemic itself -even.
Among other negative consequences, COVID-19 has created conditions that allow the spread of disinformation, fake news and trafficked videos to foment violence and divide communities. “
“It is essential that States oppose disinformation as a toxic engine of the secondary impacts of the pandemic which can increase the risk of conflict, violence, human rights violations and mass atrocities” , according to the transregional press release.
The 13 nations called on everyone to immediately stop spreading false information and to comply with the UN recommendations to tackle this problem.
“The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the crucial need to access free, reliable, reliable, factual, multilingual, targeted, accurate, clear and science-based information, as well as to ensure dialogue and participation of all stakeholders and affected communities during preparation, preparation and response, “they said.
Countries said that with many other countries and international institutions, such as WHO and UNESCO, they have worked to build society’s resilience against disinformation, which has improved overall preparedness and to better understand both “the infodemia” and COVID. 19 pandemic.
“We are also concerned about the damage caused by the deliberate creation and dissemination of false or manipulated information relating to the pandemic. We call on countries to take measures to combat the spread of this disinformation, in an objective manner and with respect for citizens “Freedom of expression, as well as public order and security. We reaffirm the importance of ensuring that people are properly informed by reliable sources and are not misled by misinformation on COVID-19, “said the statement.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
