Covid Information: Where do we draw the line?

December 8, 2021

By Jaden Farley, Fall 2021 Intern

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, people have experienced a deluge of new information regarding the novel virus. Not only has some of this information changed since the start of the pandemic due to scientists learning new things about the virus, but there has been a plethora of incorrect information being spread via social media about it. Some of this incorrect information has been spread with good intentions, but with other pieces of information it’s hard to see where the good lies. The big ethical question then remains: can we censor misinformation without impeding on free speech? How can we know whether misinformation was spread with good intentions or malicious ones? What obligations do people have to ensure the information they’re spreading is factually correct?

These are the questions that this year’s Ethics on Tap event tried to answer. Our group’s mission is to help foster direct yet respectful conversation about difficult topics that impact our community. We strive to create a welcoming environment in which these difficult topics can be discussed. We held our 2^nd annual Ethics on Tap event on November 30^th at Cypress and Grove Brewing for UF students and the local community. The event was made to foster an open, group dialogue about the ethical implications of the spread of Covid-19 information and what role we have in its dissemination. It was led and moderated by Margaret Ansell, the Nursing and Consumer Health Liaison Librarian at the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries. She is a senior member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals and has attained the Consumer Health Information Specialization Level II credentials. With her guidance and opening presentation, our event was able to have thought provoking and profound discussions.

At the start of the event, it was important to distinguish the difference between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is misleading, inaccurate information that has no intent to deceive, whereas disinformation is inaccurate information that is shared with the intent to deceive. Disinformation is deliberate and malicious. They are both dangerous forms of wrongful information that have affected the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as Ansell pointed out in her presentation, the line between misinformation and disinformation is not black and white. There is a range, a spectrum. There are people who spread inaccurate information as an inside joke, satire, or comedy; there are people who spread inaccurate information because they believe in a certain cause it supports; there are people who spread inaccurate information because they truly didn’t know any better. It is hard to draw a definitive line in the sand, and it’s hard to delineate where the blame and accountability should fall. That was the baseline of our discussion that Tuesday night.

Some of the key topics of discussion included:

The role social media has played in changing the landscape in which information is consumed
The degree of responsibility people have to guaranteeing that the information they post is factually accurate
Epistemological questions of how do we know what information is accurate or not
How the 24/7 news cycle has inundated us with arguably too much information
How humans sometimes seek emotional responses over factual ones
and much more.

With the array of opinions and ideas, it becomes apparent that there is not clear-cut answer to any of these questions. Only with more discussion and more investigation can we begin to get closer to finding solutions to these problems that won’t go away anytime soon.

Ethics in the Public Sphere

Covid Information: Where do we draw the line?

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