THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In order to counter the spread of misinformation through social media, experts have suggested that factual information should be spread from authentic sources. The suggestion came up at a panel discussion organised by the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Internet Society with experts from the medical fraternity on the topic 'The Internet, Social Media and the Nipah Virus Outbreak', said a statement from ISOC on Thursday.
Taking note of the spread of misleading information regarding Nipah, experts said that there was an immediate need for an authentic source to deliver crucial information and actively push it in the social media to withstand the onslaught of misinformation. It should be in multiple languages, including Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil, as well as the languages of the migrant workers in the region.
Additional professor of surgery and joint director of eHealth Kerala project, Dr. Jayan Chandrasekharan said that though the government acted quickly against the spread of misinformation, it was difficult to ascertain the source of the information. Past chair of ISOC-TRV Satish Babu said that informational content had become an important part of medicine and was especially important in the case of a highly infectious disease such as that caused by the Nipah-virus.
