BEIRUT: Medical laboratories are globally challenged to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and halt its aftermath. Other laboratories are relentlessly working in parallel to halt another type of infection, what the World Health Organization called “infodemic,” which is also affecting lives, and Lebanon’s immune system has been significantly affected by the delirious spike of fake news, especially starting 2019 with the downward spiraling economic situation. The August 4 Beirut blast has also bred more fake news.
To lessen the impact of the degrading trust in knowledgeable sources amidst an informational manipulation of the citizenry, numerous factchecking “laboratories” are taking action in Lebanon, on the individual, organisational, and national scales, to equip citizens with tools to differentiate bogus from authentic, in times of uncertainty.
Locally: A Fact-Checker a Day Keeps Fake News Away
Earlier in 2020, the UNDP and Dawaer selected youth from ten Lebanese villages, to undergo a training on fact-checking fake news. Nancy Souky, a volunteer from the Choueifat local authority, never expected the change that she has been sensing among her surroundings, ever since she joined the training. They now question whether or not their WhatsApp groups are the sole trustworthy source of information, she says.
“We developed what we acquired in the training ،"صحتــك مــن صحــة الخــر" ,campaign a into (real/“healthy” news contribute to your health/ wellbeing), a youth-led social media initiative combating fake news in Lebanon, to help our communities ascertain the veracity or falsity of digital stories about COVID-19,” she added. “We’ve been monitoring hoaxes and disseminating corrections on Facebook1 and Instagram2 since April 2020.” ,checked-fact team"، صحتـك مـن صحـة الخـر" The on August 12, several circulating voice messages that misled social media users into believing that the Lebanese Red Cross warned from potential explosions after the August 4 blast, and that the French Embassy in Lebanon asked from its citizens to not move for 48 hours for the same reason. Another voluntary fact-checking initiative, El3asas العَسـس") َ "), meaning “night watchmen,” is trying to offer Lebanon accurate information amidst the overwhelming misinformation brouhaha the country has lost itself into, especially since the October 2019 uprisings, the time when El3asas officially widened its hoax-debunking horizons that have seen the light few months prior. “El3asas disseminates corrections on Facebook3 , Twitter4 , and Instagram5 , thanks to a team of freelance graphic designers, fact-checkers, proofreaders, and legal experts, immensely investing in this cause,” noted Yumna Fawaz, one of the initiators of El3asas. “The falsehoods we swat down are selected on circulation-basis: the more they’re spreading, the more we pursue their origins and motives, to later wield facts correcting them.” El3asas posted on September 29, for instance, the real picture of French President Emmanuel Macron who attended a videoconference with leaders from the European Union on March 10. This same picture was falsely modified in early September, to show Macron having a (fake) virtual meeting with Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah.
Zoom Out: Clearer Vision and Wider Audiences
To Hala Homsi, the main fact-checker at An-Nahar newspaper’s website, correcting misperceptions is a process rather based on human-interest news the repercussions of which might increase fear among communities, than the news’ circulation itself. “To attenuate the spread of fake news, pictures, and videos, I monitor social media and imprecise news websites,” Homsi expressed. “I search for credible sources to provide audiences with accurate references via the “Fact Checking #تتحقــق_النهار" section that An-Nahar’s website launched in January 2018.” For instance, An-Nahar’s website posted, on August 187 , that allegations of selling UNICEF aid goods, supposedly donated to those affected by the Beirut blast, are false. Similarly, Khaled Soubeih, coordinator for AFP (Agence France Presse) Fact-Check8 in Arabic , distinguished three dominating pandemic-related misinformation currents that emerged from almost 130 hoaxes from the Arab world, debunked by the Arabic AFP Fact-Check service during three months. “The most popular fake news in Lebanon and the world is that the pandemic is a lie, or even a political artefact. Fuelled by conspiracy theorists, such news let people mentally escape to a pandemic-free delirious parallel universe,” specified Soubeih. “Health misperceptions [such as garlic, onion, and lemon being body armours against the coronavirus] are also going viral, putting lives at risk. Third, cultural misrepresentations of the virus are roaming the world.” Considered as “third-party fact-checkers” by Facebook since 2019, fact-checkers at AFP investigate falsehoods to rectify them, alongside the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), by tagging inaccurate Facebook posts. Furthermore, the LBCI News Website has been debunking hoaxes in its “ "كاذب خرب) "fake news) section for around a year, pinpoints Tony Kassab, editor-in-chief of the LBCI News website. “Corrections can help in decreasing misperceptions online, but can hardly eradicate them all, because the intentionally harmful fake news leaves a greater impact given its instinct-oriented nature,” explained Kassab. Indeed, an online “echo chamber” effect is created whenever social media users associate with likeminded fellows sharing opinions, reinforcing their prejudices and biases, making it harder to prove the “sources” wrong. “Of the fake news that widely spread in the COVID-19 crisis was the unusual registration, back then, of around 100 COVID-19 cases a few months ago, causing a late issuance of the daily COVID-19 report by the Ministry of Public Health, leading to a huge panic. Even some journalists fell for it!”
Macro-Scale: Trying to Heal a Nation
The UNDP launched in March 2020, in partnership with local TV LBCI, a national awareness campaign titled “Count till 10 before sharing unverified news”10 , aiming at slowing the spread of fake news, and reflecting the necessity of the safe consumption of accurate news, by raising awareness via infographics and contributions by local influencers. Ten social media activations related to COVID-19 news, including influencer videos and a social media takeover, have been part of the campaign so far. Additionally, four TV spots and visuals aired this November.
References:
1-https://www.facebook.com/ pages/category/News---MediaWebsite/%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%83- %D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%A9- %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8 %B1-101805838163725/
2-https://www.instagram.com/so7tak_men_so7et_ lkhabar/
3-https://www.facebook.com/El3asas/
4-https://twitter.com/el3asas
5-https://www.instagram.com/el3asas/
6-https://www.annahar.com/section/56
7-%D8% A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1- %D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%87-%D8 %A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8 %A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%- B2%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9
8-https://www.annahar.com/arabic/ article/1258312-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A% D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%81- %D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%AD- %D8%AD%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%A9- %D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B9- %D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7- %D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9- %D9%81%D9%8A- %D9%85%D8%AA%D8%AC%D8%B1- %D9%84%D9%85-%D9%86%D8%AC%D8%AF- %D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%8A%D8%- A4%D9%83%D8%AF-%D8%B0%D9%84%D9%83- factcheck 8-https://factuel.afp.com/ar
9-https://www.lbcgroup.tv/ search/%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1- %D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B0%D8%A8 10-https://www.facebook.com/ watch/?v=241372277235966