Rumors & Misinformation

Rumors and misinformation are one of the biggest challenges facing vulnerable populations across the world.  Rumors, misinformation and hate speech on social media have been blamed for everything from genocide in Myanmar, to the election of Donald Trump. The propagation of rumors, hate speech and misinformation on social media has been increasing for years — and a lack of regulation by Governments and social media companies has meant processes in place to deal with it are inadequate, leaving rumors and misinformation to fester and breed unchecked.  

Signpost is leading the humanitarian space in its approach to identifying and tackling rumors and digital community liaisons are at the heart of this success. Moderators use their contextual lenses to monitor social media spaces where rumors circulate amongst user communities and identify rumors. They feed rumors back to our editorial team who investigate each rumor and then develop counter-content to push into audiences’ News Feeds. 

Recognizing a Rumor 

Rumors can develop as coordinated misinformation campaigns, developed deliberately by bad actors (eg. smugglers). For example, that a destination country is letting in all migrants and asylum seekers.  They can also arise organically within communities due to information voids. Rumors like these tend to arise where the information provided by governments and authorities is unclear.

Digital community liaisons help us tackle both types of rumors by monitoring: 

• Questions that come through directly to us from users as messages.
• Comments on our pages and in our group.
• Other social media spaces used by our audience (talk to your Social Media Focal Point about identifying these). 

Many rumors spread amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is an example of a rumor you might find spreading on a Signpost page and an appropriate response. 

Example of a Rumor: 

• Rumor: "I heard that drinking a combination of boiled ginger, lemon and tamarind can prevent and cure COVID-19."
• Signpost Response after Checking with the Editorial Team: "Thank you for your comment but according to the World Health Organization this is not a verified cure or prevention tactic for COVID-19. You can find all the official and verified information and guidance from the World Health Organization here."

If you spot a rumor, or what you expect might be bad or misleading information, on Facebook either in our comments , messages or in a private group then report it to the Editorial Team immediately.