Below are extracts from the WHO Infodemic Management News Flash | Issue #70 - 1 May 2024 - with thanks to Richard Fitton.
Social media has enabled people across the globe to form communities and digital villages where members bond around issues that matter to them, including various health topics... A recent exploration of the new anti-diet movement has revealed just how influencers have latched on to the pendulum swing in diet and weight-loss culture towards fat acceptance within the public, which has resulted in unwanted and unhealthy outcomes while also contributing to an information space that makes it harder to access high quality health information around nutrition and diets...
While there is some evidence to suggest that providing influencers with training material can improve the quality of health information, long-term sustainability is unclear. More holistic attempts should be made at addressing the growing fissures such as the lack of trust between (digital) communities and public health systems. How integrated are national ministries of health into the digital communities that form around health topics of concern for those populations? It is useful to equip individuals with strategies for recognising content that is sponsored or has questionable science, but also, do we have effective policies in place that better inform how social media algorithms deliver health content to our personalised feeds? Health systems need to be better positioned to listen to the digital environments that are inhabited by their population groups of concern, in order to more effectively respond to their needs.
In the same newsletter there is news of:
Combatting health infodemics in Africa: Introducing the Africa Misinformation Portal
In an age where information spreads at lightning speed and separating fact from fiction has become increasingly challenging, we are excited to introduce the Africa Misinformation Portal (AMP), an innovative initiative by the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA), a WHO-hosted network, aimed at combating misinformation about health issues in Africa. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, AMP is a tool to guide and support workflows for infodemic management. It is a free and easy-to-use operational tool to aggregate real public health misinformation and information requests from the field and empower localized infodemic response via an artificial intelligence (AI) analysis and recommendations that draw from a catalogue of curated resources. Via an innovative blend of cutting-edge AI (including ChatGPT) and human curation, the portal analyses various sources, including social media platforms, online news, and word-of-mouth, to identify and address misinformation outbreaks.
The tool was tested in 15 countries in the African region, and feedback contributed to the improvement of the tool. By leveraging the collective expertise and resources of the community, we can more effectively combat health misinformation in Africa. For its launching phase AMP is available to selected professional profiles at the forefront of the fight against infodemics (healthcare professionals, researchers, health journalists and fact-checkers) who will be able to access the portal in English or French 24/7 from their laptop or mobile device. AMP also takes inputs from sources that were previously low visibility like WhatsApp groups and local radio. Its user-friendly design minimizes training costs and duration.
Visit the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance page to learn more about the AMP and similar initiatives: https://www.afro.who.int/aira
I cannot find the URL for the full newsletter. The latest news flash I can find is 27 March: https://www.who.int/teams/epi-win/infodemic-management/news-flashes
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
