COVID-19 pandemic exposed dangers of fake news — Bongbong Marcos

MANILA, Philippines —  The dangers of fake news were exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the government’s Media Information Literacy campaign on Monday.

Marcos said that fake news has infiltrated many facets of life and poses dangers. 

“It goes into every part of our lives. It becomes dangerous, it became dangerous during the pandemic because people were giving some very outrageous advice, and this was hurting other people,” said Marcos in his speech in Pasay City. 

While Marcos did not specify a specific scenario, his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had said gasoline could be used as a disinfectant.

The Department of Health had to clarify that Duterte could have just made a joke.

“You would look, these people will say, ‘This is a thing that you can do.’ What they are saying can be ‘We’re pro-vax, anti-vax, wear your masks, don’t wear a mask. It’s a political statement.’ We were all confused, and there was very little that you could do to find out except to find out who these people were,” said Marcos. 

Marcos hoped that with the signing of the MOU, citizens, especially the youth, could be equipped with the tools to identify fake news. 

gsg/abc