Misinformation

Ljubljana – Proceedings have been launched against two doctors by the Medical Chamber tribunal due to their contentious statements about Covid-19 vaccination and vaccines, the chamber has told the STA. Unofficially, one of them is a member of an anti-vaccine doctors’ movement.

President Joe Biden said on July 16 that social media misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccinations is "killing people" and the White House said Facebook needs to clean up its act.

Over 50% of Romanians believe that they have been exposed over the last months to fake news or misinformation, and 52.6% consider that TV channels are the information channels most exposed to misinformation and the spread of fake news, according to a survey conducted by INSCOP.

Most Romanians believe that they have been exposed to fake news and misinformation in the recent months, according to an INSCOP survey sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

"You can produce a piece of fake news in five minutes, but it takes a few hours or a few days to debunk it." Exposing disinformation and misinformation is a difficult task that requires "meticulous, investigative, time-consuming work," and requires it be presented "without boring [audiences] and without spreading propaganda yourself," Voicu elaborates.

More than half of the citizens of North Macedonia, 55 per cent, said they would be unlikely to get a COVID-19 vaccination if it was offered to them, a survey carried out by the London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, ISD, says.

With vaccination against COVID-19 in full swing, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter say they've stepped up their fight against misinformation that aims to undermine trust in the vaccines. But problems abound.

"After I confirmed it with my sources, I reported the situation", Can, who at the time worked for the local Izmir newspaper Iz Gazete, told BIRN.

Pressed to name his sources, Can refused. Hours of questioning resulted in a charge of spreading fake news and causing panic. The case was dropped several months later, but Can's chilling experience was far from a one-off. 

Facebook introduces new regulations in Bulgaria and Hungary. A team of the social network, including two journalists- one from each of the two countries, will check posts for false and misleading information, as well as for information intended to encourage violence. 

"Sending personal messages is an attempt to spread misinformation faster, before it can be detected," explains Rosana Aleksoska, from, Fighting Fake News Narratives, F2N2, a project led by the well-known Skopje based NGO MOST, which searches for misinformation on the Internet.