Internews is working with Translators without Borders, BBC Media Action Standby Task Force to collect and analyse rumours and misinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease.
In the last three months, we have analysed more than 3,000 rumours in nine languages and produced four Social Media Rumour Bulletins (You can see all the past editions here).
For this special fifth edition of the bulletin, we are taking a closer look at 6 language groups: Khmer, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia and Thai.
We provide a one-page summary of key misinformation trends over the last three months including common categories of rumour and high risk posts.
We determine posts to be high risk if they meet any of these four categories:
1 – Posts that encourage high risk behaviour: Eg ‘Drinking bleach cures the COVID-19’
2 – Posts that discourage testing or treatment : Eg ‘Don’t get tested, doctors will infect you’
3 – Posts that present a risk to particular groups in the community: Eg ‘Attack any foreigner you see, make them leave – they are the real cause of this virus’
4 – Posts that may cause a rush on essential services: Eg ‘Buy 6 months supply of medication – they are closing all pharmacies soon’
This analysis is designed to support communication and engagement strategies via local media, in person or online, using the languages and communication channels your community prefers.
The first step of communication should be to listen. We hope this data will support COVID-19 communication efforts that begin with the real questions and concerns of our communities.
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: .
If you would like to submit a rumour in any of the languages we monitor, you can use our simple online submission tool.