By Kashish Khanna, Gunhaar Panjwani, Vicky Lam - Lab Undergraduate Affiliates
Technology facilitates the communication and spread of information in ways that can result in public benefit. In particular, information communications technologies, such as social media, can serve as a powerful tool for information dissemination. In fact, they often serve as a platform for governments to communicate with their constituents. However, the information environment is much broader than governments, and many non-state actors also play a large role in the way information and disinformation can be spread. Understanding the effects of circulating disinformation provides insight into the complex dynamics of an evolving information environment. The focus of this blog post is on the dynamics of COVID-19 disinformation within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. Our research finds that the influence of disinformation, from both foreign and domestic sources, is continuing to grow, requiring adjustment to domestic goals and hindering public health in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These effects have arisen due to an increasingly vulnerable information environment weakened by the minimal regulation of information accuracy on social media platforms. The result is a petri dish of conspiracy theories and distrust for public health measures, including masks and vaccines. The impact of this disinformation has been particularly acute in the ASEAN region, where many communities have developed intense feelings of distrust towards information regarding public health measures and vaccines.
Much of the distrust is the product of external influences imported via social media and messenger apps. These platforms lower information transaction costs and enable the spread of narratives that challenge government information networks and recommended health practices. One such platform that is disproportionally impacting the information space in many countries is the messaging service WhatsApp, which enabled the spread of anti-vaccine information originating in the United States to foreign audiences. The dissemination of disinformation via WhatsApp was accompanied with increased distrust in vaccine efficacy, safety, and general public health initiatives related to the pandemic.
Social media applications are also altering traditional social, cultural, and societal norms that have historically shaped the perception of information in various countries. In particular targeted disinformation interjected into local socio-cultural contexts can result in lower confidences in expert information. The use of local cultural contexts to spread disinformation has been pronounced in anti-vaccine propaganda in the Philippines. One particularly deleterious piece of disinformation equated the COVID-19 vaccine to “the mark of the beast”, indicating affiliation with Satan, a strongly negative connotation in population with a large number of Catholics. The interplay of religiosity and disinformation fostered a foreign to domestic delivery vector for disinformation, spawning distrust in public health measures and vaccines. The accompanying decreased vaccination rates resulted in increased infections and higher mortality rates, demonstrating the efficacy of culturally emphasized disinformation.
Disinformation by local influencers has been used reach to influence public discourse and bring about increasing uncertainty. One such influencer, Gede Ari Astina, an Indonesian drummer wrote to over one million Instagram followers, that “Those who don’t believe that this covid is just a business scheme may still believe that America has landed on the moon and 9/11 is by Muslims. ” He continued to make statements like this throughout the course of the pandemic, using his strong social media presence to influence his followers. Deliberate disinformation propagated through local information vectors has negatively impacted vaccination rates.
The combination of external and internal sources of disinformation discussed by Hoang Linh Dang, indicates that the disrupted information environment has left ASEAN nations in unfortunate positions. Dang points to Indonesia, social media influencers, such as Astina, and “self-studied” experts who have actively contributing information and filled a gap in Indonesian Government messaging. The result is that while Indonesian public is unable to receive consistent, accurate, and reliably information from official sources, many have instead been consumed disinformation from ‘popular’ social media sources. Dang found that 10% of respondents to a survey conducted in April 2020 believed that a warm climate could prevent the transmission of COVID-19, while nearly 20% of respondents believed that the virus could be cured by a homemade remedy of salt water or vinegar. These theories gave the Indonesian public a false sense of security, resulting in resistance to masks and social distancing. Coinciding with increased disinformation, COVID-19 case totals in the country reached 108,000 by the end of July 2020.
Further disinformation in the ASEAN region pertaining governmental regulations, disease prevention, and cures also inspired the stockpiling of goods, and resulted in price inflation and product scams. One product scam in Indonesia fostered the idea that the local drink “Jamu'' had the ability to cure the virus and lead to increased prices for the ingredients of Jamu. Similarly, in Singapore, after an increase in the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition level, social media platforms were filled with pictures of stores and supermarkets with empty stocks and long queues.
The ASEAN region continued to suffer from disinformation well into the pandemic, as countries such as Indonesia and Philippines experienced their worst periods of cases and deaths in the summer of 2021. This has been cited as an effect of low vaccination rates in these countries. Despite the worsened conditions, after multiple periods of lockdown, the countries are being forced to ‘open up’, spiking fears in the general public about a further, possible increase in COVID-19 cases. Mass-disinformation has led ASEAN countries to abandon their “zero-COVID-19 goals” in order to protect their struggling economies, accepting the pandemic as a part of daily life. This decision leaves the region vulnerable to future waves of COVID-19 cases and continued struggles against disinformation.