By Cliff Chiduku, Zimbabwe.
With the advent of social media, story can go viral in a short period of time. And motivated by the need to break news, captive headlines which borders on sensationalism are becoming the order of the day. These news stories are meant to trigger emotional responses from readers. However, in this era where news spreads very quickly, it is now difficult to draw the line between what is real and what is false.
For example, after the Gates Foundation added another $70 million towards global efforts to develop and distribute vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, social media was abuzz with alarming claims that Bill Gates intends to implant microchips in people under the guise of using the coronavirus vaccine.
There is no doubt that since the story went viral, many people are likely to refuse to use the COVID-19 vaccine because it will include tracking microchips. The death COVID-19 death toll is likely to rise astronomically owing to such conspiracy theories.
Gates for some time has been a target of conspiracy theories emanating from his wealth and generosity. The coronavirus has given an impetus to the claim.
The story had the potential to incite public unrest and severe consequences, especially on efforts to fight the virulent virus. The story was also shared in a number local newspapers and radio stations.
Such stories are a testimony that the COVID-19 pandemic is a minefield of misinformation, disinformation and malainformation.
Having realised the damage this story could cause, it jolted me to further dig and found that basing on the framing of the story it could either be fabricated or fake news.
Being a journalist, who knew that social media should be taken with a pinch of salt, I contacted the Bill Gates Foundation through email. In response, the foundation’s spokesperson laughed at the reports, and said the incident had never happened.
VERDICT: My ruling: False
There is no evidence Bill Gates is trying to implant microchips in people around under the guise of COVID-19 vaccines – the Bill Gates Foundation has denied the claim. I rate this claim FALSE because it is not supported by our research.
It was a lesson that this is how fake news spreads faster — and causes more damage — than real news. And with the coming of citizen journalism, fake news is now a raging fire.
What makes fake news so dangerous is the people writing it — unlike responsible journalists — are not restrained by the truth? They manufacture situations that are meant to provoke an emotional response. Malice!
If you don’t want to spread fake news, there are steps you can take. It’s obviously going to the rule 101 of journalism.
First and foremost, when you see an outrageous headline, read the story. You’d be surprised how many of the headlines are contradicted by the actual story.
Second, if you see something that seems outrageous, do your own research, fact check. Find at least two or more independent sources that are familiar with the story. You should think twice about believing — and sharing — the post if the other sources are quoting the original source. Retweeting, commenting and liking posts that carries hate and misinformation is dangerous as it amplifies fake news. Ignoring of flagging/ reporting such posts would save lives, especially when matters of life and death, such as COVID-19 are involved.
All that I have said above are a few take-aways after undergoing an RNTC course on countering disinformation recently.
Check out for more fact-checking posts on COVID-19 on this blog. With correct information, a COVID-19 world is possible!
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This blog entry was created in the RNTC course ‘Producing Media to Counter Disinformation’. You can also sign up for this course! Click here!