Media Monitoring Africa says the spreading and sharing of fake news and misinformation causes anxiety and anger among people creating a sense of panic, fear and an unprecedented sense of urgency.

South Africans have been quick to not only start, but also spread misinformation around COVID-19 despite warnings that the spreading of fake news has been declared a criminal offence.

At least one one person has been arrested for spreading false reports that there is no coronavirus outbreak in South Africa,

Speaking to Radio Islam, Media Monitoring Africa’s William Bird says while most people sharing “as received” messages is not an act an ill-will, the misinformation can have repercussions.

“There are some devious underhanded scumbags who think that’s it a funny idea or whatever tick they get out of it to spread mis and disinformation to scare people or to spread conspiracy theories.”

Bird has urged people to get COVID-19 news from trusted sources adding that, ‘like you wash your hands, wash your brain for twenty seconds before you forward.”

“Generally the media are giving us information that we can trust and that we can rely on and that we can use. So when our president in South Africa spoke to us just the other night, he wasn’t delivering good news, ifanything he was delivering exactly the opposite. But when you listen to that he wasn’t saying ‘my friend said and this and we all going to die’, not at all. He was saying we will get through this and it was about reassurance and calm.”

Bird says in order to combat the plethora of fake news, Media Monitoring Africa is working with a number of media partners to set up a complaints mechanism where people can report suspicious news and information to: real411.org

Faizel Patel

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Listen to the interview with William Bird