Coronavirus Disinformation Roundup

Health-related disinformation fascinates and terrifies me. If I’m training or speaking to a group that isn’t explicitly political, I always try to use a public health example (such as this Media Matters study on flu shot disinformation) in my slide deck because it’s the best way to depoliticize disinformation and articulate how disinformation can put people in danger.

Of course, public health conspiracies and disinformation aren’t actually that different from any other kinds of disinformation. You can almost always find the usual racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and dehumanization at the core. The Coronavirus epidemic is a prime example of this. Buzzfeed’s Jane Lytvynenko has a running list of any and all Coronavirus disinformation but I wanted to highlight some interesting examples of how the epidemic is being exploited by trolls and hostile actors:

• According to The Jewish Voice Extremists are using Coronavirus to advance antisemitic conspiratorial agendas. “Following a well-worn pattern of capitalizing on major news stories to advance their bigotry and anti-Semitism, extremists have latched onto fears surrounding the rapid spread of the coronavirus in order to promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. As per usual, extremists are relying heavily on social media platforms to share their hateful views.”
• Several outlets are reporting…