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Significance
The WHO has been forced to divert significant attention and resources to battling swathes of misinformation, which are hampering the efforts of the organisation and governments to check the spread of COVID-19. In early February the WHO called this an 'infodemic'.
Impacts
Crowdsourcing the response to misinformation, as Wikipedia has been doing, might be effective.
Mistakes by authorities in handling the outbreak will feed conspiracy theories.
Misinformative content could decrease public trust in governments and reputable organisations, such as the WHO.
Keywords:
Telecoms,
International,
China,
INT,
social,
computers,
health,
internet,
media,
technology,
telecommunications
© Oxford Analytica 2020. All rights reserved. This content contains general information about geopolitical, macroeconomic and social developments or (where stated) other matters. It does not contain advice or recommendations that may be relied on. Where links to external websites are provided, this does not indicate that Oxford Analytica or Emerald agree with, endorse or have checked for accuracy the contents of said sites.
2020
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