{"id":1337,"date":"2020-04-25T10:56:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T15:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogofnotesite.wpengine.com\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2020-04-25T14:02:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T19:02:56","slug":"deterring-viral-pandemics-of-covid-19-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/deterring-viral-pandemics-of-covid-19-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Deterring Viral Pandemics of COVID-19 Misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, so does an info-demic of dangerous misinformation threatening public health. UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres characterized this misinfo-demic as a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/coronavirus-live-updates\/2020\/04\/14\/834287961\/u-n-chief-targets-dangerous-epidemic-of-misinformation-on-coronavirus\"> \u201csecondary disease\u201d<\/a> that needlessly threatens public health, observing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/coronavirus-live-updates\/2020\/04\/14\/834287961\/u-n-chief-targets-dangerous-epidemic-of-misinformation-on-coronavirus\">&#8220;[h]armful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating.\u201d<\/a> A U.S. Attorney similarly warned Americans to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2020\/03\/26\/fake-coronavirus-cure-fraud\/\">\u201cextremely wary of outlandish medical claims and false promises of immense profits.\u201d<\/a> \u201c[O]ver 4,000 coronavirus-related domains\u2014that is, they contain words like \u201ccorona\u201d or \u201ccovid\u201d \u2014have been registered since the beginning of 2020. Of those, 3 percent were considered malicious and another 5 percent were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2020\/3\/5\/21164745\/coronavirus-phishing-email-scams\">suspicious.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media sites are also being used to spread misinformation. For example, postings on the encrypted app Telegram are promoting the  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/2020\/3\/5\/21164745\/coronavirus-phishing-email-scams\">dangerous suggestion<\/a> that ingesting toxic bleach is a miracle cure for COVID-19. President Donald Trump may have been influenced by such disinformation when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/mms-bleach-advocates-telegram-photos-child-injuries-2020-4\">he \u201ctold a press briefing<\/a>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. that because disinfectant killed the virus on external surfaces, perhaps it could be injected into the bodies of patients infected with COVID-19 as a treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/blog\/be-careful-where-you-get-your-news-about-coronavirus-2020020118801\">Harvard Health Blog<\/a> <\/em>has been tracking \u201cfalse and misleading posts\u201d about COVID-19 on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, including the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201c[A] false claim that \u2018coronavirus is a human-made virus in the laboratory.\u2019\u201d<\/li><li>\u201c[S]ales of unproven \u2018nonmedical immune boosters\u2019 to help people ward off\u201d COVID-19.<\/li><li>\u201cUnfounded recommendations to prevent infection by taking vitamin C and avoiding spicy &nbsp;foods.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cDangerous suggestions that drinking bleach and snorting cocaine can cure coronavirus infection.\u201d<\/li><li>A video with dangerous lies such as avoiding cold food and drinks prevents coronavirus infection.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Financial motives underlie many of these viral disinformation campaigns. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/13\/nyregion\/alex-jones-coronavirus-cure.html\">Right-winger Alex Jones<\/a> claims \u201cthat his Superblue brand of toothpaste \u2018kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range.\u2019\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/consequenceofsound.net\/2020\/03\/televangelist-jim-bakker-fake-coronavirus-cure\/\">Televangelist Jim Bakker <\/a>is selling \u201ccolloidal silver\u2014tiny silver particles suspended in fluid\u201d\u2014as a cure that will eliminate COVID-19 within 12 hours. Recently, a former small-time actor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2020\/03\/26\/fake-coronavirus-cure-fraud\/\">Keith Lawrence Middlebrook<\/a>, peddled a fake coronavirus cure to his millions of social media followers while fraudulently soliciting investors. Videos posted to his 2.4 million Instagram followers displayed \u201cnondescript white pills and a liquid injection,\u201d claiming they would offer immunity and a cure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other postings appear designed to spread fear and hatred. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/04\/17\/bill-gates-is-top-target-for-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-report.html\">Conspiracy theories <\/a>falsely linking [Bill] Gates to the coronavirus\u2019 origins in some way or another were mentioned 1.2 million times on television or social media from February to April\u201d alleging, among numerous other accusations, that this was a scheme to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-bill-gates-micr-idUSKBN21I3EC\">implant vaccine microchips in everyone<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem with these false postings\u2014aside from the fact that they are fabricated\u2014is that some may believe them. By relying upon such fictitious information, people may decide to no longer observe physical distancing, handwashing, surface disinfection, and other preventive measures. They may even die from taking dangerous lies seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;In the United States, there is no right to remove dangerous public health misinformation from the Internet because of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/47\/230\">Section&nbsp;230 of the Communications Decency Act <\/a>(CDA \u00a7&nbsp;230). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/47\/230\">CDA \u00a7&nbsp;230 <\/a>states: \u201cNo provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.\u201d This brief clause is a liability shield that protects websites for anything third parties create and post online, even if the false information <a href=\"https:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/us-9th-circuit\/1592538.html\">endangers the public<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The majority of federal circuits have interpreted CDA \u00a7&nbsp;230 to establish a broad <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/almeida-v-amazoncom-inc\">\u201cfederal immunity <\/a>to any cause of action that would make service providers liable for information originating with a third-party user of the service.\u201d Interestingly, \u201c[t]he legal protections provided by CDA 230 are unique to U.S. law; European nations, Canada, Japan, and the vast majority of other countries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/issues\/cda230\">do not have similar statutes on the books<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We believe Congress should amend CDA \u00a7\u00a0230 to enable the victims of dangerous postings to use tort law to force websites to take down dangerously false postings about COVID-19 and similar threats. As with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, websites will have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/17\/512\">no duty to monitor <\/a>hazardous public health disinformation. A website operator would be required to expeditiously remove dangerous postings only after receiving notice from government regulators or the direct victims of this incorrect information. Ultimately, this notice and takedown regime will realign U.S. law into conformity with the <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/ALL\/?uri=CELEX%3A32000L0031\">European Union\u2019s E-Commerce Directive<\/a>. Our CDA \u00a7\u00a0230 reform <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/ALL\/?uri=CELEX%3A32000L0031\">harmonizes U.S. law with the Directive<\/a> by premising the liability shield for third party content on expeditiously disabling access. This CDA \u00a7\u00a0230 reform will enable Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other global Internet websites to implement a single notice and takedown procedure, rather than having different policies for the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Michael L. Rustad is the Thomas F. Lambert Jr. Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School and Co-Director of its Intellectual Property Law Concentration.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Thomas H. Koenig is Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the coronavirus spreads across the United States, so does an info-demic of dangerous misinformation threatening public health. UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres characterized this misinfo-demic as a \u201csecondary disease\u201d that needlessly threatens public health, observing that &#8220;[h]armful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating.\u201d A U.S. Attorney similarly warned Americans to be \u201cextremely wary of outlandish medical claims and false promises of immense profits.\u201d \u201c[O]ver 4,000 coronavirus-related domains\u2014that is, they contain words like \u201ccorona\u201d or \u201ccovid\u201d \u2014have been registered since&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/deterring-viral-pandemics-of-covid-19-misinformation\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[122,133,43],"tags":[146,147,114,111,145,150,149,144,140,148,143],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid-19","category-internet-issues","category-professor-contribution","tag-cda","tag-communications-decency-act","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-info-demic","tag-information","tag-misinfo-demic","tag-misinformation","tag-pandemic","tag-public","tag-public-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jSvD-lz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/data-control-and-surveillance-in-the-covid-19-response\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":0},"title":"Data Control and Surveillance in the COVID-19 Response","author":"Brian Citro &amp; Kat Albrecht","date":"May 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In a paper published last month, we argue that the emerging emphasis on digital technologies in the global tuberculosis (TB) response is ushering in a new era of data colonization and surveillance in the name of public health. We assert that, despite some promise, digital adherence technologies for TB create\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;COVID-19&quot;","block_context":{"text":"COVID-19","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1414,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/vaccines-and-ip-preparedness-in-the-coronavirus-outbreak\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":1},"title":"Vaccines and IP Preparedness in the Coronavirus Outbreak","author":"Ana Santos Rutschman","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The COVID-19 pandemic has shed renewed light on the importance of research and development (R&D) on biopharmaceutical products needed to prevent or lessen the burden posed by outbreaks of infectious diseases. Among these, the need for new vaccines has become of paramount importance. While a race to develop different types\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Congressional Responses&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Congressional Responses","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/congressional-responses\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1357,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/surveillance-intrusiveness-in-a-pandemic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":2},"title":"Surveillance Intrusiveness in a Pandemic","author":"Matthew B. Kugler &amp; Mariana Oliver","date":"April 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Government surveillance capabilities have always been a matter of public concern, but the current pandemic makes the issue especially salient. We set out to discover what Americans think of government surveillance during this crisis. Americans have been inundated with media reports of novel forms of public health surveillance since the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Constitutional Issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Constitutional Issues","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/constitutional-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1426,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/hoas-and-residents-with-covid-19\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":3},"title":"HOAs and Residents with COVID-19","author":"Dave Fagundes","date":"May 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The coronavirus quarantine has led many states to issue stay-at-home orders on the plausible theory that doing so will cause individuals to be isolated from others and less likely to catch or spread the virus. Yet for many people, \u201chome\u201d is not a place of complete isolation, but involves shared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;COVID-19&quot;","block_context":{"text":"COVID-19","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2040,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/beyond-investment-in-research-what-covid-19-policymakers-can-learn-from-the-hiv-aids-epidemic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":4},"title":"Beyond Investment in Research: What COVID-19 Policymakers Can Learn from the HIV\/AIDS Epidemic","author":"Clay Davis","date":"December 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Widespread investment in biomedical research has made many Americans tentatively optimistic about the resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the public sector, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act has provided nearly $10 billion in funding for therapy and vaccine development through agencies like the NIH and CDC.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Congressional Responses&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Congressional Responses","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/congressional-responses\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1404,"url":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/south-dakotas-covid-19-response-is-a-battleground-for-tribal-sovereignty\/","url_meta":{"origin":1337,"position":5},"title":"South Dakota\u2019s COVID-19 Response is a Battleground for Tribal Sovereignty","author":"Anastasia O'Hara","date":"May 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In a May 5 post Assistant Attorney General for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice Paul Spruhan argued that Indian tribes should have authority to restrict movement through their territories in order to stem the tide of the COVID-19 epidemic. Those very principles are now being put to the test\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Constitutional Issues&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Constitutional Issues","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/category\/covid-19\/constitutional-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}