Highlights:
- Vaccines: hope fuels rumours
- Reinfection Returns: rumours about reinfection continue to appear
- Changing times: Rumours about strains and mutations of the virus
Internews is working with Translators without Borders, Standby Task Force and BBC Media Action to collect and analyse rumours and misinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease. Data is being collected in seven languages across Asia including Thai, Khmer, Urdu, Indonesian, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. We will also begin monitoring of rumours shared in Hindi and Bangla languages in the coming weeks.
This analysis is based on 2,163 rumours collected between January 23, 2020, and May 8, 2020. Facebook and Twitter are the main platforms where this information was collected, but we have also recorded rumours from Weibo, WeChat, Line, Tiktok, Instagram, and Kwei.
This bulletin relies on social media data collected by monitors working for Internews and partner organisations. Data is collected both manually and with the use of specialist monitoring platforms. Content will focus based on key trends in social media data collected in our target language groups and aims to provide tools and resources to help journalists and community workers to respond to misinformation in their work.
If you would like us to analyse social media posts related to a specific category of COVID-19 misinformation, would like resources for your newsroom, or would like to provide any feedback on our service, please contact us: .
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