Irish Examiner view: Fake news is another pandemic – Irish Examiner

Now that time has begun to do what it always does confer a more complete perspective we can offer thanks for the last American presidency even if only for one aspect of it. That misadventure showed what happens when an unanchored force uses disinformation to achieve its objectives. It might be tempting to dismiss the suggestion that such an up-the-garden-path strategy might work here with the disdain of a Parisien rejecting a vaccine because it was not made in France but that would be foolish. Dangerous too.

Saturdays anti-lockdown march in Dublin was a modest affair involving around 150 souls but 11 were arrested. Others were fined for ignoring public health guidelines. It is difficult, and disheartening, to try to understand why people, even if only a tiny minority, subscribe to views so very contrary to public health advice.

It is possible but unacceptable, that anger on other issues makes them susceptible to online quackery. That dynamic, and unspoken ambitions, may be behind similar protests in Germany this weekend. In Kassel, far-right opponents of pandemic regulations clashed with police and counter-protesters. The protests came as the rate at which Germans are being infected passed the level at which authorities say healthcare systems will be overburdened.

Today we report on how the HSE works to counter the misinformation spurring those protests. The authority has highlighted more than 300 posts spreading misinformation in the last six weeks alone. It is not hard to think that recent protests in Dublin and Cork were provoked by what the HSE has described as deliberate misinformation.

That intended and deliberate dishonesty is not confined to health issues. The Royal Swedish Academy of Science publishes a report today warning that fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss has a delaying and worrying impact on averting environmental threats.

The scientists warn that urgent measures will be hard to enforce if they continue to suffer targeted attacks on social media. Given the vast scale of the problem, the report warns that modest adjustments to todays industrial and agricultural practices will be insufficient. Transformative changes are now necessary, it concludes. Misinformation from one lobby or another has become a real and growing threat.

As if to confirm that these battles are as much emotional or intellectual as scientific in recent days Canadas Conservatives voted to reject the line that climate change is real from a revision of its policy documents. It might be interesting to know how the citizens of Australias New South Wales would react to that incomprehensible vote. This weekend NSW issued more evacuation orders following the worst flooding in decades. Already ravaged by bush fires Australian attitudes towards climate change are changing.

The role misinformation plays in shaping public attitudes can hardly be confined to the pandemic or climate collapse. Once again Yeats advice seems wise: Cast a cold eye on life lest we blindly march up one beguiling garden path or another just as those so misled to attack Washingtons Capitol on January 6 were.

More here:

Irish Examiner view: Fake news is another pandemic - Irish Examiner