26 May 2021, EWN
More than one year into the pandemic and pockets of fake news and disinformation continue to hamper efforts to effectively deal with COVID-19. Organisations such as Media Monitoring Africa and the Real411 have been used to mitigate the spread of disinformation.
MMA director William Bird told Eyewitness News in January that the spread of fake news about COVID-19 was another pandemic in its own right.
“That is what the World Health Organization said, they called it an infodemic, and you know it’s this idea that you can spread all these rumors which really hamper efforts by government and scientists and doctors to try and mitigate the crisis we’re in.”