Disinformation about COVID-19 spreads among black communities

A new report by Ms. Brandi Collins-Dexter, Senior Campaign Director at Color Of Change, describes how disinformation spread among Black communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collins-Dexter explained that they tracked disinformation and conspiracy messages across platforms using digital ethnography methods. The investigation detected harmful inaccuracies circulating about how to take preventive measures to avoid contracting COVID-19, how to treat it, and where it comes from in Black online spaces, increasing the risk of contagion within the community. According to the report “a share of the disinformation appears to be targeted directly at the community by outsiders, while some has grown up organically within specific Black communities.”