with the coronavirus divisive ui
selection
a new conflict in some parts of the
world
2020 has provided fertile ground
for viral misinformation to spread
let's break down some of the key trends
we've seen this year
[Music]
conspiracy theories and bad health
advice about coronavirus
flooded social media some celebrities
and politicians were key to the spread
of misleading content
research showed that they were
responsible for only a small proportion
of false claims
but their posts accounted for nearly 70
of engagement on the topic
[Music]
stop this deal started as a hashtag on
us twitter
on election day but went on to be used
at protests backing
donald trump's unsubstantiated claims
about
voter fraud thousands demonstrated in
the u.s
because of this misleading narrative
election workers and
officials in several u.s states received
verbal abuse
and threats due to the false claims
spreading online
it has to stop someone's gonna get hurt
someone's gonna get shot someone's gonna
get killed and such movements can easily
go global
another online campaign by followers of
the q anon conspiracy theory
hijacked the name of the well-known
charity save the children
in the summer and mobilize rallies in
more than 200 cities around the world
within weeks
[Music]
amid the heightened emotions of a
conflict it's easy
to fall for doctors and misleading
visuals
these were widely shared in
confrontations across the globe
from clashes on the chinese indian
border
to the war between azerbaijan and
armenia over nagorno-karabakh
it also happened when conflict broke out
between ethiopia's government
and regional authorities in tigray state
in november
we came across old and edited images
from uzbekistan
russia and libya the torah passed off as
fighting in ethiopia
many of these images were shared either
to boost morale or to present the enemy
in a negative light
some of the images used weapons from
other conflicts and had been edited to
look as if they belong to the current
conflict
and there was even a scene from a video
game that was shared as if it was
footage from
actual fighting misinformation
is a truly global issue and it is here
to stay
but there is one thing we all can do to
help curb it spread
always stop and think before sharing