Misinformation isn’t really a new thing going on in this century but it’s still very important to acknowledge that. And during this coronavirus pandemic going on, people would find a lot of news and information on social media about Covid-19. Some news can be really sneaky to let you think that their news is reliable and trustworthy and most people don’t really take a closer look at the news whether it’s real or fake or do further researches on the information.

Differences between misinformation and disinformation

You might be asking “ What’s the difference between these two? “ and to answer that question, misinformation is false information that is spread, regardless of intent to mislead. But we all make mistakes and can misheard or misunderstand the information we’re trying to inform other people without intending to deceive them. But disinformation is “ false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence people public opinion or obscure the truth, “ Merriam-Webster said. Which both could easily lead to more false information spreading to more people on both social media and in real life.

Misleading to violence and harassment 

Disinformation and misinformation can lead to many problems with ridiculous crimes, along with xenophobia and racism towards Asian people and being violent towards them because they’re afraid of getting infected and assume that Asian people were the carriers of the virus which isn’t true. Especially towards Chinese people. 

Similarly, some people would even be accosted just because they were wearing masks to protect themselves from getting infected. “ To some, wearing masks means admitting a fear they may not have consciously confronted yet, “ said David Abrams, a clinical psychologist and professor of social and behavioural science at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. 

Whether positive or negative, such cognitive shortcuts can still result in prejudgments that could lead to rash decisions from biases. In addition, all of this can also cause more cyberbullying and cause more drama towards people trying to speak out more about this and those who have got infected and were cured which could lead to more wounds to mental health.

Why aren’t some people wearing masks?

For example of disinformation, President Donald Trump has repeatedly lied about the coronavirus pandemic. Which could lead to some other people thinking that everything he said was all true and that they should listen to what he says. And there are also mixed messages that while the CDC recommends the public to wear masks, President Donald Trump didn’t wear a mask during a visit to a Honeywell mask factory to also conclude why some people still don’t wear masks. Because whatever the leader does, will always be right, right? Well that isn’t always the case.

Overall, it’s just that some people don’t really think it’s that important to wear masks since they aren’t the ones infected. If you can’t really see the picture of what I’m talking about, imagine that you are a sniper trying to kill a target from a high building. You thought that since you’re the one killing the target, you wouldn’t have to wear a safety vest. But you’ll never be sure if your target has a weapon or a safety vest under their clothing underneath or the target could have had their backup ( their backup is represented as the coronavirus ) to kill you before you kill them so there are possible chances of you getting killed during your mission. 

How can we be sure if the informed information is real or fake?

It’s hard to identify what’s real and what’s not on the web. Nowadays we usually search up information on the internet and not like the way people used to do back then such as newspapers or radios. But it’s also because our mind playing tricks on us because we tend to trust information more easily that confirms our beliefs. And we call that cognitive biases. 

Some people are starting to think that they no longer have to have evidence to back up their arguments because the people who deceived their arguments, probably wouldn’t look up more about the information and would just believe their false statements anyways. And eventually, some would stop listening to industry reports which give out more accurate and truthful information. 

Firstly, always check the source of the information you got from. If you’re not really confident about the information given to you, always do more researches on that topic. Check the date when the article was published, check the spelling and grammar, check the way their webpage was designed and if it looked suspicious and check the web address. If the web address seemed like its spelling was spelled incorrectly, then be careful with the website you’re reading.

Secondly, see if others are also reporting about that topic or have already picked up on the news. But remember, not all websites spread out false information so don’t quickly jump to conclusions. And even though they are professionals, they can also make mistakes so keep looking if you’re still unsure about the information from those websites. 

Thirdly, analyze their complete argument. See if their claims seem possible to happen, see if their evidence and reasonings are correct and related to the topic they’re talking about. Many websites would conclude facts, quotes or statistics on their webpage so if there are anything suspicious, keep it in your mind. Also think about if their evidence is proving a particular viewpoint because that could also be suspicious.

If there are images on their website, remember that some images can also be edited to make it look real. And some websites include images that are completely unrelated to their information or topic so look out for that too.

Why are these people making fake news?

There are many reasons why it keeps going on, especially in the year 2020. Remember that their primary goal is to deceive us and try to make the fake news interesting because some truthful news without that much tea are boring to most people. 

Those news that seem to attract more people to read their website are usually motivated by strong emotions that are more likely to be shared such as surprised, fear, disgust, hatred, etc. 

Some fake news are usually mixed up truths and lies all together to seem real. Some people can share fake news on accident too and that would satisfy their goal, which is for their fake news to go viral and be more popular. For example, “Tim Allen quote Trump’s wall costs less than the Obamacare website”