Governments across Asia are stepping up arrests over a growing scourge of misinformation related to the coronavirus outbreak, even as outrage grows in China over how early virus whistleblowers were punished for spreading falsehoods after one of the doctors passed away.
Hong Kong police this week nabbed a part-time security guard at a shopping mall for allegedly writing on social media that multiple staff members had caught a fever and gone on sick leave. The messages “caused panic” and helped “breed paranoia”, police said in a statement on Facebook. The government separately blamed “evil” rumor mongers for fuelling a run on goods at supermarkets such as toilet paper and rice.
Arrests of more than 20 people across six countries show the extent to which governments are policing social media as they seek to prevent panic and further economic damage. Authorities in Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand have all joined China in cracking down on “misinformation” or “fake news” with arrests and the threat of jail time.
It’s all part of what the World Health Organization calls a “massive infodemic” of informational abundance, some of it inaccurate, which makes it hard for people to find credible sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Governments also risk censoring legitimate information in their efforts to stop rumours, which could further hurt efforts to contain the virus, as was the case when doctors in the epicentre of the virus were punished for spreading “rumours” about a viral outbreak more than a month ago.
“China’s early efforts to control the narrative around the outbreak severely stunted its initial response to the spread of the coronavirus,” said Matthew Bugher, the Asia Programme head for Article 19, a British rights group supporting free expression. “It’s extremely worrying that governments in Southeast Asia appear to be following China’s example.”
21st-century challenge
Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s director for global infectious hazard preparedness, told reporters in Geneva this week that handling misinformation is “a challenge of the 21st century”. The organisation’s technical risk communication and social media teams have been tracking and responding to myths and rumors on the virus across Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
“We’re all beneficiaries of those extremely intense and fast communications, and we can also be victims of it,” Ms Briand said. “The thing is not censorship, it’s trying to understand what are people concerned about and how to respond.”
The region’s authorities have taken a different approach. Malaysia’s attorney-general promised charges after authorities detained six for posts with false information on the virus. Police earlier said they were investigating social media posts with misleading messages, including claims of an influx of Chinese tourists, new infections and virus-related deaths in the country.
“Lies about the origins, scale and magnitude of the disease must not be permitted because they endanger public safety,” said attorney-general Tommy Thomas in a Wednesday statement.
In Thailand, authorities said on Thursday they have arrested four people for posts that allegedly violate the country’s 2017 Computer Crimes Act, which carries sentences of as many as five years in prison. India has arrested five people on suspicion of spreading rumours on the whereabouts of patients, while Indonesia arrested two people on charges of spreading fake news related to coronavirus. They face as much as 10 years in jail, according to Indonesian police spokesman Argo Yuwono.
Correction notices
Police in Vietnam fined a man for posting “unverified information” on Facebook about two Chinese visitors who had been hospitalised. Singapore, meanwhile, invoked its fake news law instructing Facebook, users of the platform and publications to carry correction notices about posts and articles allegedly containing false information about the virus.
“During Sars, we did not have social media,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters in Jan 31 comments posted on his website. “We are very diligent in putting out information as quickly as we get it, and as quickly as we can verify it, in order to make sure that people know what it is, what is the truth, what you need to worry about and what you should ignore.”
One risk with all these arrests is that authorities censor useful information. Chinese officials punished a doctor in Wuhan for blowing the whistle on the spread of a virus in the early days of the outbreak, in a cover-up that was a failed opportunity to stem the outbreak.
The Wuhan doctor, Li Wenliang, was one of eight whistle blowers punished by police in January for “spreading rumours”. In a Weibo post, he said he examined a medical report of a patient on Dec 30 that looked like Sars, also caused by a coronavirus. He shared the finding with some former medical school classmates so they could take precautions, in a WeChat group message that said “Seven cases of Sars confirmed.”
‘Extremely worrying’
“The police found me and made me sign an official letter of criticism after I sent the message,” said Li, who died Friday after he was infected with the virus as he worked to fight against the outbreak. He posted a photo of the letter, in which Wuhan police castigated him for false statements that “disturbed the social order”.
The Wuhan police said on Jan 1 that eight people were summoned and punished for “spreading rumours” about pneumonia patients, though the bureau later restricted viewing access to the Weibo post.
The Supreme People’s Court later criticised the police department for punishing a whistleblower in a post on the court’s WeChat account, noting that the information shared wasn’t entirely false, and that the public may have been able to curtail the spread of the disease had it responded by tightening health measures in Wuhan.
The police responded that the whistleblowers faced “mild” punishment of education and criticism, and weren’t taken into custody or fined.
“Government efforts to control the flow of information are dangerous and often counter-productive,” said Article 19’s Bugher. “Truth and transparency are the best tonic for misinformation.Asian governments would be wise to prioritise their own public awareness efforts over attempt to police public discourse on the crisis.”
