Abstract:

Fake news is a historical phenomenon transformed by the post-truth era in reliable reality. In pandemic times the proliferation of fake news is growing due to the general climate of fear. In the time of COVID-19, one of the main challenges is to tell the difference between true and fake information about the disease. Various actors have been spreading around distorted or fake news on the pandemic in order to fulfill their goals, which may cause irreparable damage in the process. This is why state institutions are no longer focused on merely containing the infection, but also on containing false information about the infection.

Smartphones, tablets, app stores and internet with almost unlimited possibilities have become symbols of digital revolution. The benefits of informational revolution are clear and beyond dispute, but associated risks and dilemmas are also important. In this complex environment, disinformation and fake news are posing in threats against society. The abundance of information and the multitude of channels that propagate this kind of content makes it hard to spot any attempts of manipulation.

In this pandemic context, one of the solutions would be to establish a strong security culture based on education, knowledge and critical thinking. All these prerogatives should guide the consumer behavior to go for the truth.

Also, this paper presents a few methods to prevent or react to false information or to detect this information. Numerous false information about SARS-COV-2 virus or treatment against him are sent through social networks or via Internet. The people must be trained to recognize fake-news and don’t reply them.For all of these, there are formal or informal methods to train about this. In most cases, the informal methods are the best, because most of the people prefer to obtain information through informal sources such as: friends, groups, family and so on. These information vectors must send the correct information about pandemic time because the damages of fake-news can be massive.

Keywords:

Fake-news, disinformation, education, awareness, pandemic time.