New fakes about COVID-19 are spreading fast online

According to Yandex.Q, between January 2020 and June 2021, 244 major COVID-related fake stories were reposted more than 6 million times on social media. And this does not include forwarding of the same stories in messengers, which cannot be counted. And according to the Civic Chamber, the growth of fakes in the first half of 2021 was more than 50%. There are about 30 thousand recorded examples of misinformation in social networks and messengers. More than half of the deliberately false messages are about COVID and vaccinations.

It is unknown who composes and spreads fake information and for what purpose. Law enforcers and the government regard it as a deliberate attempt to destabilize public sentiment, to cause panic. The problem is exacerbated by a new and steeply rising incidence of disease.

The anti-vaccine and covid denialist fakes that dominate the web fit under the fake news law clause if one promotes them, and for whatever purpose, even condemnation. That’s why we have to be especially careful. Leading social networks, such as Facebook, even tag posts about COVID with a special sign to reinforce users’ social responsibility for reposting. How to know if you’re looking at fake information about COVID or vaccinations? “The largest group is vaccination. Around 10,000 fake vaccinations, such as chipping, growing horns and tails,” says the Civic Chamber

Be careful before you repost on social networks or distribute any information related to COVID in your messenger. Especially if they are facts or true stories about vaccinations or their effects “a friend of a friend got vaccinated and died” “vaccines cause infertility and autism” . Any information about a lockdown and its consequences “the city will be shut down soon, they’ll cut the power,” etc is also a fake.p. , if it does not come from official sources.

Marginal theories about the origin of COVID “golden billion” world government , denial of its existence “the coronavirus is just the flu, the government is spreading panic” , and anti-vaccination rhetoric especially the clear calls to resist vaccinations, sanitary rules or calls to buy COVID certificates on the black market can also be considered fakes.

Many fakes are “sharpened” for specific regions: for example, in the Far East and Kazan there is a widespread circulation via WhatsApp of a video, where under multiple magnification the alleged surface of the mask shows micro worms, which allegedly infect people when they wear it. Of course, there is no scientific basis for this Roskachestvo previously conducted a study on the effectiveness of medical masks and chose the best ones .

In Sochi they spread information about the “Cynthia bacterium” living in the sea and mutating, supposedly causing COVID in Eastern Siberia they fear the Chinese, who allegedly infect everyone with “white powder”. Petersburgers are most interested in conspiracy theories Bill Gates created COVID, etc. .p. . And the federal “champion” was the fake about the fictional American doctor Yura, who allegedly worked in Wuhan and knows the truth about the virus.

Vladimir Tarachev, head of the Roskachevo department for protection of consumer rights:

“Show responsibility and take the problem of fakes seriously, don’t spread such information, even as a joke. If you receive such a message from a relative or friend, explain to him that it is a fake and that spreading false information could lead to criminal liability. If you encounter a fake post on a social network, complain about the post as containing fake information – it will have no legal consequences for the author of the post, but will keep other users from fakes”