“A mixture of Vitamin C, D, Omega-3, Zinc, turmeric, and ashwagandha (an ancient medicinal herb) followed by very hot baths will cure Covid-19,” read a WhatsApp message forwarded to Anthony Wainaina.
It was just one of many such messages claiming false cures for the disease he had received in just days following the announcement that a Kenyan had tested positive for Covid-19.
Irritated, Wainaina left the group, one that had been dormant for months, and revived by a burst of mostly false messages about the disease.
In mid-February, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, used the term infodemic to refer to the scourge of fake news that appeared to spread faster than the pandemic itself, with damaging implications for all involved.
Even after advising the public to refrain from sharing information they had not verified, March saw an increase in false coronavirus related messages.
Everything from conspiracy theories on its origin to claims that the virus is a biological weapon to fake speeches attributed to Barrack Obama advising against the use of a potential vaccine in Africa, there is no shortage of these messages, which the world is feverishly forwarding to whoever is in their social circles, the only disclaimer being “sent as received”.
VULNERABLE GROUP
The arrival of the coronavirus, which has most people either working from home or staying at home since sources of their income have been cut short, means that many Kenyans have more time to scour social media, read and share content on their social media platforms.
The arrival of the coronavirus, which has most people either working from home or staying at home since sources of their income have been cut short, means that many Kenyans have more time to scour social media, read and share content on their social media platforms.
While the source of these misleading messages may not always be certain, anecdotal evidence from millennial users and scientific research indicates that the older generation is more likely to fuel the spread of such messages than any other demographic.
A 2019 study published in the journal Science Advances concluded that people above 65 years old were most likely to share unverified information than their younger counterparts.
While the study zeroed in on articles shared on Facebook during the 2016 US presidential election, it describes the manner in which the media is discovered and shared by the age groups in question, in a trend that is consistent across the board.
Of the sampled groups, 11 per cent of users aged 65 or older were more likely to share fake news as opposed to their youngest counterparts aged between 18 and 29, who were about three per cent likely to do the same.
The eldest group shared almost seven times more articles than the youngest, yet they very rarely fetched this information from the propaganda domains themselves.
COGNITIVE ABILITIES
The report also suggests two theories for this generational gap: one, a difference in digital literacy skills between the two generations, seeing as one group grew up using the internet while the other joined years later, and two, the vulnerability of older people to fall for hoaxes, a factor attributed to a decline in cognitive abilities as the years go by.
The report also suggests two theories for this generational gap: one, a difference in digital literacy skills between the two generations, seeing as one group grew up using the internet while the other joined years later, and two, the vulnerability of older people to fall for hoaxes, a factor attributed to a decline in cognitive abilities as the years go by.
An explanation for this trend leans toward a difference in perception between the two.
“The older generation tends to believe what they see as they see it, while the younger generation will be more sceptical at first and require more information before accepting it as true,” explains Habil Oloo, a consultant social researcher.
He illustrates this by using the example of M-Pesa scams, where older generations are often more vulnerable to exploitation than the younger, more tech savvy generation that would think to question the motives of the sender before obliging to their requests.
Older people are more likely to believe what they read on the internet as it is, especially if the information delivered is religious and from a person they trust in their places of worship.
“If the sender of the message is a prominent church leader, like an elder or a priest, the older user will be more likely to believe it is true and forward it to friends and family. To establish a chain of trust, they must hold the person in high regard,” he added.
FACT–CHECKING
Religious theories have been precisely the kind of messages Chia Kayanda, 24, has received increasingly over the past few weeks, with one claiming that the arrival of the novel coronavirus is “a sign of the end times”, therefore, “all must repent their sins and be born again if they are to survive”.
Religious theories have been precisely the kind of messages Chia Kayanda, 24, has received increasingly over the past few weeks, with one claiming that the arrival of the novel coronavirus is “a sign of the end times”, therefore, “all must repent their sins and be born again if they are to survive”.
In a day, she receives an average of about 60-100 messages from her peer groups, and around 10-30 from her parents and other relatives.
Her case offers a different perspective to the age debate, as she is more sceptical about the information shared by her friends at this time than she would be of, say, her parents.
“I trust 90 per cent of what my dad sends; then there’s the 10 per cent that I have to conduct due diligence for and fact check,” she said, adding that her father goes into the trouble to fact check the messages himself before forwarding.
If he finds himself on the wrong, he either clarifies his message on the group or deletes it to avoid misinforming the family. Her father, Vincent Kayanda, is in his mid-sixties.
He receives several forwarded messages in a day on WhatsApp, prompting him to delete some at least every evening.
The routine is prompted by an overflow of non-factual information from several groups in which he is a member.
He says his daughter Chia shares very few messages in return, illustrating the trend discussed earlier, where research indicates the youth are less likely to forward such information.
“We have a centralised family group specifically for coronavirus updates, and she has not posted anything since its formation,” he says.
MISINFORMATION
He is also much more likely to believe what his wife sends him, but would often stop to fact check messages from his friends on the internet before sharing them with others.
He is also much more likely to believe what his wife sends him, but would often stop to fact check messages from his friends on the internet before sharing them with others.
The act of sharing this information often has no ill will, either. It often comes from a point of care, an obligation that the older generation is more inclined to fulfilling for their friends and family.
“The sender often hopes that whoever they share the information with will benefit from it, as opposed to younger generations that may do so to appear in the know,” Oloo further explains.
While majority of the messages forwarded may be jokes or read as harmless hoaxes, information that contradicts the directives given by the WHO and other regulatory bodies, especially concerning remedies that have not been tried and tested, could be dangerous, especially if the recipient decides to follow the given advice.
US President Donald Trump became the highlight of the global infodemic in March when he touted hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug, as well as azithromycin and antiviral medication, as capable of tackling coronavirus.
Multitudes worldwide rushed to buy the over-the-counter drugs without verifying the message, leading to the death of an American after he consumed chloroquine phosphate.
In Kenya, the same misinformation led to consumers hoarding of some of these drugs, leading to a shortage for those who needed them to improve or support their quality of life.
TOUGH MEASURES
Following the debacle, The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya issued a statement warning Kenyans against self-medicating using Azithromycin and Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine.
Following the debacle, The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya issued a statement warning Kenyans against self-medicating using Azithromycin and Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine.
Fact-checking can seem like an odd and tedious task for most, especially at a time when everyone is paranoid and unsure of what the future holds in regard to Covid-19, but it is necessary.
And yet, social media channels are almost impossible to regulate. Take WhatsApp for instance, with end-to-end encryption that has made it difficult to trace the authors of disinformation in the past.
In light of the so-called infodemic, however, the instant messaging platform announced on April 7 stringent measures to curb the spread of these messages, which had markedly increased as the coronavirus began to spread across the world, “overwhelming” WhatsApp users.
In one of the raft of measures, if a user receives a message that has been forwarded more than five times, they may only be allowed to forward it to one other chat at a time, less than the previous limit of five chats imposed last year.
While the measures may not stop the spread of disinformation completely, they prompt the user to question the authenticity of forwarded messages.
“Is all forwarding bad? Certainly not. Many users forward helpful information, as well as funny videos, memes, and reflections or prayers they find meaningful,” their spokesperson said in a recent blog post.
Fact checking websites are a way to verify messages that appear dodgy, and most websites, including WhatsApp, have established an information hub for the coronavirus updates to counter the stream of false information.
INFLUENCERS
Websites such as africacheck.org debunk urban myths around the coronavirus, from origin stories to outliers such as the much-forwarded 5G theory of transmission.
The role of influencers cannot be understated in this war against infodemics either, as they can make or break the spread of disinformation and act as middle-men for the masses when it comes to critical news about the virus.
The fact is that popular personalities have a responsibility to fact-check information before they publish it on their social media walls, since their followers are likely to view it as fact.
Journalists such as BBC Africa’s Ian Wafula use their social media clout for good, providing his fact-checking expertise to his followers.
African traditional culture has, for generations, amplified the wisdom of the elderly, with good reason.
Experience is the best teacher, but as times change, so do the ways in which society protects one another.
The novel coronavirus does not discriminate, though it appears to disproportionately target the older generations that are increasingly susceptible to forwarded messages on social media.
Caring for your loved ones from a distance also means sharing the right information, and correcting each other where you can at a time when nothing seems quite certain.