Caloocan youth group to host conversation on COVID-19 ‘infodemic’

This is a press release from the Caloocan Young Leaders Initiative.

Spreading much faster than the virus itself, the flurry of false information about COVID-19 — dubbed by the World Health Organization as “infodemic” — made the situation worse in many parts of the world.

Whether it is false information about the vaccines or unsubstantiated claims regarding prevention and treatment, misinformation and disinformation continue to cause confusion and harm.

To address this, the Caloocan Young Leaders Initiative (CYLI), a community-based nonprofit volunteer group, will tackle the COVID-19 infodemic in the upcoming fifth session of Caloocan Sustainable Development Goals Conversation (SDGCon) 2021 on August 28, 2021, at 3 pm.

Dubbed “What The Facts?! A Conversation on Mis- and Disinformation During the COVID-19 Pandemic”, the webinar will highlight the role of the youth as advocates of truth, in the context of SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 4 (Quality Education), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

“The problem of mis- and disinformation about COVID-19 makes it more difficult for our frontliners to respond to the pandemic. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that fake news will not thrive during these times of uncertainty,” said CYLI executive secretary Janvic Mateo.

Among the plenary speakers are journalists Mike Navallo from ABS-CBN News, Celine Samson of Vera Files, and Gemma Mendoza of Rappler.

Navallo will talk about the perils of disinformation and how the youth can become truth warriors in the digital age, while Samson and Mendoza will discuss fact-checking and digital security in social media platforms, respectively.

Rappler and VERA Files are the Philippine signatories to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a consortium of fact-checking organizations around the world.

The plenary session will be followed by a panel discussion of different initiatives to address mis- and disinformation in the digital age.

It will feature science communicator and former journalist Kristine Sabillo, University of the Philippines (UP) Fact-Checking Lab Keindel Maha Vizcarra, medical technology intern and Juan Health PH executive editor Jefson Felix.

The panelists will share their experiences in debunking myths and false information amid the current health crisis, as well as the ways on how the youth can help combat the spread of fake news.

“Through this conversation, we hope to encourage students, youth leaders, and the general public to be more discerning of the information that they see online,” said Mateo.

Interested participants of the webinar series may register here. The event will also be livestreamed on the Facebook page of Caloocan Young Leaders Initiative and Rappler’s MovePH.

For inquiries about the program, you may contact sdgcon2021.cyli@gmail.com or caloocanyoungleaders@gmail.com.

The fifth session of the Caloocan SDGCon 2021 is presented by the CYLI Media and Information Literacy Division, in partnership with Rappler’s MovePH, Vera Files, Philippine Association for Media and Information Literacy, Juan Health PH, Masy Consultants, the Abot Tala COmmunity, UP Law Student Government, University of Santo Tomas (UST) Legal Management Society, and the Heritage Conservation Society – UST Youth Chapter. – Rappler.com