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Which Coronavirus Reports Are Fake? Ask These Fact Checkers

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - It's easy to jump online and find reports saying
   onions in the home can ward off the coronavirus that has hobbled much
   of Asia this month or see videos saying hordes of bats living in China
   spread the disease. Some say Taiwan's outbreak of COVID-19 has spiraled
   out of control, though the government reports just 32 isolated cases.

   A young nonprofit organization in Taipei has looked into 50
   virus-related news items to determine which are fakes. Its staff of
   five, equipped with internet apps and their own media backgrounds,
   specializes in knowing truth from untruth in Chinese-language media,
   including social.

   More than 90% of the virus stories they investigated are false, said
   Summer Chen, chief editor of the organization called Taiwan FactCheck
   Center.

   They found rumors. There were squibs with commercial motives. There
   were Chinese-planted reports that make Taiwan look bad, Chen said. The
   two sides are political rivals.

   "Of course, some are out to make political attacks like the government,
   and over the past few days we've been hit by internet trolls," Chen, a
   former newspaper journalist, said in an interview Friday.

   Fake news in the making

   Shortly before Taiwanese picked a president Jan. 11, someone used
   social media to say the coronavirus was already spreading and advised
   wearing face masks to polling stations, then washing their hands later
   in case of germs, Chen said. Someone came out this month on social
   media to advise rubbing sesame oil under the nose to stop the
   coronavirus spread, she added.

   Two media-linked associations started the Taiwan FactCheck Center, and
   at first it was just investigating two reports per week, either from
   conventional media or from online. It's recognized by the International
   Fact-Checking Network and belongs to a Facebook fact-checking platform.

   Now they get five reports a day, a surge that started during Taiwan's
   sometimes vicious presidential election campaign.

   After the election, "we hadn't even taken a breath and we started
   working on Wuhan pneumonia," Chen said, using a local slang term for
   the novel coronavirus.

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