{"id":20008,"date":"2020-05-11T10:34:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T10:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/?p=20008"},"modified":"2021-12-07T21:49:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T21:49:34","slug":"the-pandemic-proves-we-need-a-superfund-to-clean-up-misinformation-on-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/the-pandemic-proves-we-need-a-superfund-to-clean-up-misinformation-on-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pandemic Proves We Need A \u201cSuperfund\u201d to Clean Up Misinformation on the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog post is part of a series on communications policies Public Knowledge recommends in response to the pandemic. You can read more of our proposals<\/em> here<\/em><\/a> and view the full series<\/em> here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen the next pandemic strikes, we\u2019ll be fighting it on two fronts. The first is the one you immediately think about: understanding the disease, researching a cure and inoculating the population. The second is new, and one you might not have thought much about: fighting the deluge of rumors, misinformation and flat-out lies that will appear on the internet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This prediction appeared in a New York Times opinion piece<\/a> in — wait for it — June of 2019. It was obviously prescient: When the novel coronavirus — now generally known by the name of the illness it causes, COVID-19 — did strike, the World Health Organization warned<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re not just fighting an epidemic; we\u2019re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than the virus, and it is just as dangerous.\u201d Public Knowledge has been tracking<\/a> the efforts of digital platforms to counter the \u201crumors, misinformation and flat-out lies” about COVID-19 that now appear on the internet at alarming speed and volume. Our goal is to inform policy perspectives about the digital platforms and their approaches to countering misinformation both during and after the crisis. This post is an effort to sift through what we\u2019ve learned and to put forward a specific policy solution — a \u201csuperfund for the internet\u201d – for countering misinformation flowing over digital platforms after the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Politicization of Coronavirus<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2019 New York Times opinion piece made another prediction that was slightly less prescient: that a pandemic would provide \u201can apolitical way to collectively approach the general problem of misinformation and fake news.\u201d After all, the piece pointed out, \u201c[P]andemics are different; there\u2019s no political constituency in favor of people dying because of misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the pandemic did hit, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been notoriously resistant to moderation of political content on the platform, also noted<\/a>, \u201cThe difference between good and bad information is clearer in a medical crisis than in the world of, say, politics. When you\u2019re dealing with a pandemic, a lot of the stuff we\u2019re seeing just crossed the threshold. So it\u2019s easier to set policies that are a little more black and white and take a much harder line.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly how it\u2019s played out. Unfortunately, information about the novel coronavirus pandemic has become every bit as politicized as what we normally consider highly partisan topics<\/em>. This information is subject to the same patterns of creation and distribution as content designed to sow division and undermine democratic institutions; it includes content created and shared by trolls and bots, foreign interference, and even content amplified by the bully pulpit,<\/a> which is being used to convey conspiracy theories, spread medical misinformation, and apply political pressure to federal science agencies.<\/p>\n

The good news about this nightmare scenario is that it makes the pandemic a very appropriate model for how platforms should manage other types of misinformation,<\/em> including overtly political misinformation. In fact, the very same strategies may be required for both pandemic and political information, since there is now strong evidence of the danger to democracy<\/a> posed by pandemic-related disinformation from foreign parties, which is being used to weaken democratic checks on power or interfere with elections.<\/p>\n

Harms of Misinformation About Coronavirus<\/strong><\/p>\n

The politicization of the virus means misinformation about it can cause real and significant harms other than the individual life or death consequences of misunderstandings about the epidemiology of the disease<\/em>. In fact, it can create many of the same harms as political misinformation, including:<\/p>\n