Combatting disinformation in South-East Asia

Key points by Ioanna Georgia Eskiadi

In this webinar we discussed the efforts of combatting disinformation in South-East Asia, which has been on the rise throughout the last three years. Most of the countries in this region are taking great initiatives to tackle disinformation and promote media literacy among people.

The most important thing is to be literate and to learn how to distinguish disinformation and how to tackle it to promote a new media environment free of fake news. Another important tool is fact-checking, as it helps people to understand the disinformation and gives them examples of what is happening. In South-East Asia, throughout the last few years, there have been a lot of fact checking organizations developed who are trying to raise awareness in society about the issues of malinformation, disinformation/misinformation. The COVID-19 epidemic has given rise to an avalanche of disinformation worldwide. False and misleading information is quickly and widely disseminated across the internet, reaching and potentially influencing many people. The issue of disinformation, however, is broader and deeper than its pandemic-related manifestations.

Efforts to control or manipulate the public information space to influence people’s beliefs and opinions are certainly not new in South-East Asia. While the phenomenon itself is not unfamiliar, its impact has become increasingly visible as many countries have embraced transformative digital technologies that alter people’s lifestyles and media consumption behavior. Like other parts of the world, the expression “fake news” has entered into the everyday lexicon in many Asian countries. In a lot of countries in South-East Asia there has been information manipulation and interventions that mitigate future risks in the global context. It’s crucial to make news and information accessible to everyone on each particular platform and issue that are concerned with the spread of disinformation/misinformation and malinformation that is currently on the rise. Countries around the world are developing policies and setting up immediate rapid responses to tackle the spread of fake news and disinformation.

It’s important to raise people’s awareness of disinformation in South-East Asia, since it’s still low. Also, fact-checking organizations are needed, because there aren’t many and there’s a need for fact-checking services. Also, it’s crucial to develop a way of making fact-checking more interesting and more innovative.. South-East Asia needs more promotion, both educational and communicational, of fact checking programs, to make people more interested in information coming from fact checking organizations.

Watch the discussion:

Key points

· Developing fact-checking organizations

· Promote media literacy

· Acquire fact checking knowledge.

· Infodemic explosion during the pandemic.

· Information manipulation and interventions

· Need for immediate rapid response.

· News and information accessible to everyone.

· Trends in disinformation.

· Combat malign influences in the information space.

· Raise people’s awareness.

This event is co-organized by Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub (DCN SEE), Digital Communication Network Global and World Learning and is part of DCNSEE’s Ideas in Action — Digital Engagement, a series of virtual events launched in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Digital Communication Network is supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Citizen Exchanges.