Word of the year

No contest, it’s infodemic — the neologism is actually 10 years old, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has given it new life.




The internet giants of Silicon Valley must fear that the horsemen of the Apocalypse are about to step on their tails. Nothing less would have persuaded the eyeball-collectors to set aside the maximisation math and lead users directly to verified information, without trying to detain them with the claims of advertisers and charlatans. When he announced that COVID-19 had been elevated to the status of a pandemic, the director general of the World Health Organisation had said that on another front, the world was fighting an “infodemic”. Andrew Pattison, digital solutions manager of WHO, had travelled to Silicon Valley to plead with tech firms about the false information and charlatans’ cures, which were spreading faster than the virus itself.

“Infodemic” does not appear in the dictionaries, but seems to have been in use from 2010, to describe a situation where the search for a solution is complicated by a barrage of dubious data on the subject. The word “infodemiology” is slightly older, and describes the use of internet data to track the progress of outbreaks. It is legitimate research, while infodemics are threats to our civilisation.

The internet is a great equaliser, reluctant to discriminate between credible information and fringe opinions, and between prince and pauper. In its early years, this was seen as a democratising virtue. After the advent of blogging and social media, it became monstrous, as dubious sources elbowed aside hitherto trusted information, and the ominously-named “influencers” swung into action. During the COVID-19 pandemic, fake claims and conspiracy theories about the origin and treatment of the contagion have floated up from the most disreputable neighbourhoods of cyberspace and were amplified by prominent personalities and world leaders. Fake news already posed a threat to the social health of communities. Now, it is a direct threat to public health.

? The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Opinion News, download Indian Express App.

Source: Read Full Article