Professor Tom Buchanan, Professor on the Psychology BSc Honours course, has been quoted in an article published by Business Insider about the spread of misinformation on social media related to COVID-19.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, misinformation and fake cures have spread across the world, with private groups on WhatsApp being a key source of the spread. Telegram, an encrypted app, has faced criticism for promoting fake cures involving bleach to their fringe medical group.
Professor Buchanan said: "Person-to-person messaging apps rely on personal connections to spread information, and also potentially misinformation.”
He added: "Another issue with person-to-person messaging apps like Telegram or WhatsApp is that because they are by their nature private, it's very difficult to see what material is being spread, or for fact-checkers to debunk it in the same way as they can on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter."
