Guardians of truth? Fact-checking the 'disinfodemic' in Southern Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic

Based on virtual ethnography and online interviews, we provide new evidence of how fact-checking organizations based in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia responded to the influx of conspiracy theories, mis- and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of responses did ZimFact, Africa Check and Namibia Fact Check put in place to combat the spread of the 'disinfodemic' during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Southern Africa? To what extent were these interventions effective in terms of combating the viral spread of the 'disinfodemic' in the broader information ecosystem? It argues that through a combination of manual and technology-enabled verification processes, these organizations were partly able to debunk some of the harmful, conspiratorial and misleading claims related to the coronavirus. It demonstrates that fact-checking alone is not enough to stem the 'disinfodemic' unless it is complemented by an ecosystem that prioritizes access to information, media literacy initiatives, proactive takedown interventions by platform companies and increased public awareness on truthful and credible public health information. Furthermore, fact-checking organizations need to increase the speed at which they respond to the 'disinfodemic' if virality, which is the major driver of this 'phenomenon', is to be mitigated. We recommend that fact-checkers should implement efficient mechanisms of decentralizing their activities, amplify the sharing of verified information, forge collaborative initiatives with key actors and ramp up critical media literacy programmes.

Automated summary

Based on virtual ethnography and online interviews, this study provides new evidence of how fact-checking organizations in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia responded to the influx of conspiracy theories, mis- and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study argues that fact-checking alone is not enough to combat the viral spread of misinformation unless it is complemented by measures such as prioritizing access to information, media literacy initiatives, proactive takedown interventions by platform companies, and increased public awareness on truthful public health information.