As the African continent contends with the sharp rise in the spread of Covid-19 and the misinformation on the virus, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and similar agencies from 11 African countries are getting free ad space on Facebook and WhatsApp to spread right information about the pandemic.
The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu disclosing this noted that “There has never been a more critical time than now for us to leverage on social media in sending out the right message.’’
The coronavirus disease that was predominant in Asia and Europe has risen sharply in Africa with the number of cases rising from 600 around March 18, 2020, to 6,473 as at April 2, 2020.
The major obstacle to the continent is the mass of misinformation and fake news on social media platforms flowing from a deep distrust of government owing to poor health facilities that could aid the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease.
Some messages that went viral on social media platforms were filled with fake news and unfounded advice with respect to the disease.
As a result of this, governments across the African continent are teaming up with technology giants like Facebook and WhatsApp to fight the misinformation that is being spread about the coronavirus on social media platforms.
In Nigeria, health officials are collaborating with the messaging service owned by Facebook to send push notifications to users with advice on symptoms and prevention of the disease. When the first case was disclosed in Nigeria, some Nigerians started flying the conspiracy theory, which was that it was a ploy by the government to cash in on funds from international donor agencies and embezzle the money that would be made available for this campaign.
The South African government has also launched an information service about the coronavirus on WhatsApp. The country, which has more confirmed cases than any other African country, has been bedeviled with manipulated government documents with misleading coronavirus advice.
South Africa introduced a law in March that makes sharing malicious falsehoods about the virus punishable by up to six months in jail.
Kenya has not been left out of various cases of misinformation as 2 men, including a blogger, were arrested for engaging in misinformation about the disease on Twitter. One of the Twitter messages which was posted by a user that has 700,000 followers said, “Blacks don’t get coronavirus.”
Comments are closed.