Is 'fake news' hunt a Covid distraction?

Is 'fake news' hunt a Covid distraction?

With new Covid-19 infections shooting past 20,000 and deaths hovering at around 200 a day, what does Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha do?

He tells all government agencies to get rid of "fake news" in 24 hours.

The order is reminiscent of an earlier episode of barking up the wrong tree.

Following the huge fire at a plastic foam factory in Bang Phli district of Samut Prakan in July, the PM ordered authorities to create artificial rain, also known as "royal rain", as the technology was the hallmark of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great.

Luckily, the mission was cancelled in time.

It was not just that a chemical fire, fuelled by inflammable styrene monomer, cannot be put out by water but the rain would also have washed around toxins and contaminated the surrounding areas and water resources.

The royal rain blunder may not be admirable but it was at least somewhat understandable.

Here is a 67-year-old general, born in 1954 and coming of age in the 70s.

His entire career has been in the military. His faith seems to rest more with amulets, about a dozen of which he has been seen wearing around his neck, and talismanic rings he sometimes shows off, rather than cutting-edge science.

His infamous quote, saying the human brain contains some 84,000 cells, comes to mind.

As a leader, it was embarrassing to have given an order that obviously showed his total lack of scientific knowledge.

Besides, does the PM not have a team or advisers, even friends, who should have known something about this?

It seems curious that no-one gave PM Gen Prayut advice that would have saved his face.

Still, it is excusable for someone without a scientific background to assume that water would naturally douse a fire, any kind of fire.

But that is not the case with his relentless hunt for "fake news" in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

The PM's attention, and animosity, about the subject has been fervent. It is as if he is putting the blame for the ravages of the coronavirus on the spread of false information.

Perhaps it is a self-defence mechanism. As criticism of the government's handling of the crisis has grown, the PM has become more agitated about the so-called "fake news".

In late June, when more Covid-19 patients started to die either at home or on the streets while waiting for medical treatment and it was becoming clear there wouldn't be enough vaccines to give to most of the population this year, the PM ordered every ministry and government agency to set up its own anti-fake news centre.

But what exactly does the PM mean when he tells people to go after "fake news?"

Is he aware that "fake news" can mean different things to different people? Even academics argue about how the term can be defined.

That PM Gen Prayut used the very broad term "fake news" in this context already indicates that he either does not know what he is talking about or is casting an extremely wide net for some reason which could end up setting him back like his earlier attempt to prosecute those spreading "news that frightens people", which he was later forced to rescind.

Does the PM want to go after misinformation specifically? Something like fraudulent or fabricated content?

If so, does he have any proof that these kinds of "fake news" are key to the worsening of the Covid-19 crisis to the extent that he has to have them eliminated in 24 hours?

The Anti-Fake News Center (AFNC) said it screened more than 145 million messages related to "fake news" on online and social media platforms from October last year to June. Of these, it flagged just over 5,000 messages.

That is .003%. How big is the problem?

In terms of content, a recent survey by the collaborative fact-checking platform Cofact found that the top three false claims are "exaggerated qualities of the caterpillar fungus or cordyceps", that "Fah Talai Jone can prevent Covid-19" and that "Lemon soda drinks can cure cancer/Covid-19".

The PM has never shown the extent of the damage the so-called "fake news" has caused or how it has compromised the government's efforts to tackle the pandemic.

On the contrary, there seemed to be a lot of hoopla about images of medical workers holding a photo of US President Joe Biden and thanking him while receiving donated Pfizer vaccines.

Public health authorities asked the personnel to delete the Biden posts and refrain from uploading any thank-you messages in future.

So what kind of "fake news" is it really that the PM is so eagerly going after? Is it a real threat or just a distraction from the real situation?

Atiya Achakulwisut is a Bangkok Post columnist.

Atiya Achakulwisut

Columnist for the Bangkok Post

Atiya Achakulwisut is a columnist for the Bangkok Post.

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