Parallel Pandemics
We need to work together to counter digital hate and misinformation
The novel coronavirus has unleashed two parallel pandemics. One is the biological pandemic of COVID-19. The second is a social pandemic of digital misinformation: an infodemic. This “infodemic” not just militates against our success in containing COVID-19; it fundamentally threatens to weaken the democratic values that underpin our societies.
I lead the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that monitors and grapples with the increasing use of identity-based hate to polarize societies and undermine democracy. To us at CCDH, it’s clear that the same architecture that underpins the global infrastructure of hate is playing a key role in the COVID-19 crisis. Facebook forums that proselytize identity-based hate, climate denial, and vaccine misinformation are now focusing on COVID-19. The network of clickbait “fake news” sites that normally preach hate against migrants, persons of color, and the LGBTQ community—and the techniques they use to share misinformation—have jumped on the latest opportunity to harness fear in service of hate.
…the same architecture that underpins the global infrastructure of hate is playing a key role in the COVID-19 crisis.
CCDH disrupts the activities of hate and misinformation actors seeking to cynically instrumentalize COVID-19 by increasing the economic, social, and political costs of all parts of the infrastructure — including the social media platforms and content sites — that support and profit from their activities. This includes reducing the prevalence and transmission rate of misinformation about COVID-19. Specifically, we need to stop channelling money into the platforms and sites where mis- and disinformation proliferates.
Over the past two months, CCDH has discovered videos, viewed by hundreds of thousands of people on Instagram, that make the ludicrous and dangerous claim that Black people are “immune” to COVID-19. Meanwhile, online hate actors racialize coronavirus on Facebook and YouTube. In the United Kingdom, the far-right is importing anti-Muslim hate themes and Twitter hashtags from India, where anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment, and violence proliferate. In the longer term, we at CCDH fear that the pandemic could be exploited to further drive anti-migrant sentiment in the UK.
I call this threat the Digital Counter-Enlightenment, and acknowledge the previous work in the field from scholars such as Becca Lewis and Kate Starbird. It’s especially salient now because belief in false medical advice and/or conspiracy theories endangers lives. CCDH has seen economically motivated actors using populist tropes to cast doubt on expert advice to sell their bogus products. CCDH found false cures openly sold on Facebook and forums in which people gain false confidence that they are protected from the virus if they take vitamin C. There are also fringe political actors seeking to further undermine trust in government and scientific elites propagating conspiracy theories such as a link between the 5G mobile network and COVID-19 (which, in Britain, is given extra salience by the fact that the Chinese corporation, Huawei, is involved in the 5G rollout). Unscientific conspiracies and misinformation have real-life dangerous effects, whether by David Icke inspiring British people to set cell towers alight — including those serving hospitals—or potential “astroturfing” Facebook event campaigns that encourage American groups to break official social distancing guidelines to hold group anti-lockdown protests.
…amplifying prosocial messages is just as important as not giving oxygen to antisocial forces.
As social media is a battle for impressions, views, and likes, amplifying prosocial messaging is just as important as not giving oxygen to antisocial forces. At CCDH, we have applied these principles to the social pandemic of misinformation about coronavirus, gaining the UK government’s endorsement for our guide to preventing its spread online, Don’t Spread the Virus. The goal of this work is to take away the advantage of antisocial forces while bolstering the visibility of prosocial material. We have also worked with media organizations to help journalists understand why they are targeted and how to interpret the actions of malign actors so they don’t inadvertently give further oxygen to malignant views.
Second, we want to raise the costs for those who seek to spread hate and misinformation online. Our campaign, Stop Funding Fake News, based on the Sleeping Giants model, informs brands whose advertisements are appearing on fake news websites that they are inadvertently funding hate and misinformation. The ecosystem of websites spreading hate and misinformation is adaptive and resilient. In the past, this ecosystem has exploited monetization platforms such as Google Ads Display Network; payment platforms such as Paypal, Patreon, and Donorbox; and white-label merchandising stores to generate income to fund operations.
The simple act of creating transparency can force meaningful change.
Last month, we shifted the focus of this project to target sites central to the dissemination of misinformation about COVID-19, some of which have received tens of millions of views since the outbreak. In the first few weeks we saw dozens of brands stop advertising with COVID-19 misinformation sites. We have also targeted crowdfunding platforms which fund fringe hate actors by persuading their other clients to stop using those platforms. The simple act of creating transparency can force meaningful change for those who have powered and profited from hate.
Finally, we continue to expose the failings of social media giants to pressure them into action. We want to see them do better, to enforce standards, and to recognize that they have a moral duty to act against hate and dangerous misinformation. It is only the threat of negative PR, public outcry, or legislative/regulatory policy that has ever driven actual change from these platforms. Social media companies have, in the past, taken down spaces and actors that CCDH publicly exposed. We believe further action can be driven by ongoing advocacy and exposure, amplified by the urgency and emotional resonance of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as growing public anger about misinformation.
The moral arc of history does not bend towards justice without a force to push it in that direction.
If we are to succeed, we will need to fuse technical expertise with campaigning expertise, and ensure allies understand the nature of the fight we are in and the new rules of engagement in digital spaces. Our opponents may be succeeding right now, but their success is recent and, if prosocial forces worked together, we could reverse their gains and regain the advantage for liberal democratic values once again because we are all interconnected. The pandemic proves this. This latest crisis has spurred truly horrifying new acute episodes of misinformation and hate, and the chronic underpinnings must be addressed, too, with renewed vigor if we want to avoid making this a perennial feature of our lives. The history of the 20th Century was one of progress. Voices like mine — the son of Pashtun immigrants — and those of my female, Jewish, gay, and trans colleagues were brought into the public sphere and protected under law. We will need to work together to stop the history of the 21st century being one of liberal values undermined and reversed in the new digital plane of human existence. The moral arc of history does not bend towards justice without a force to push it in that direction. That is our mission at CCDH today.
Imran Ahmed is the CEO and founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) based in London, England. The views expressed in this post are those of CCDH.
