There’s been a huge rise in fake news over the past few years. The recent US election campaign and the resultant fall-out over fake news and blatant manipulation was only the tip of the iceberg. Politicians, and unethical individuals and organisations have been using fake news to ignite fear and hatred so that they can achieve very specific goals. This is no different in the Covid-19 pandemic as fake articles, fake cures, false claims and fear-driven articles are being released. People are being fed just enough truth inside these fake articles that they believe them. And this belief is a genuine problem.
Why?
Because people are scared, and scared people do things that they wouldn’t normally do. They take risks or make decisions that could affect their health based on stories that are complete fabrications. It’s a very real problem that has very serious repercussions for personal health. It also affects communities – seeding hate and mistrust – and it affects mental health – people feel overwhelmed and anxious. In short, the fake news is doing exactly what it set out to do. It’s creating chaos.
The problem is that it can be quite hard to determine whether or not a story is fake. There’s also not a lot of information about what you’re supposed to do if you find fake information. This is where the non-profit organisation Media Monitoring Africa came in. They roped in a digital agency, Assemble, to develop an app that helps people detect and prevent the spread of fake news. The app, called the Real411, was used to mitigate the spread of misinformation in the 2019 elections and has now been revamped to help people manage information in Covid-19.
In May 2019, the South African Department of Communications and Digital Technology officially endorsed the Real411 as a valid channel for the reporting of disinformation relating to the pandemic. The app is designed to help people make wise choices around fake news and its entire goal is to stop the spread and keep people safe.
What makes it different from most solutions out there is that the Real411 comes with a judging panel. Every compliant is assessed to ensure its legitimacy by three independent assessors and a legal expert then analyses the results to provide an outcome. If the alert is verified as fake news, it’s escalated for further investigation.
Built by local teams using innovative technology, the Real411 is all about giving South Africans a space to fix the fake news problem. Assemble used various AWS technologies to build innovative features in a short space of time. In addition, AWS recently committed resources to the project to help the teams at Assemble and MMA implement new features. These included artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. The platform is designed to evolve with the fake news and what people need to combat it. It’s about giving people a voice, a chance to be heard above the roar of fake information and false claims. Anyone can use it, anyone can report fake news, and anyone can take control of how they feel about the news being shared about the pandemic in South Africa.
