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THREAD: Just had a head-in-hands chat with my dad about a Coronavirus conspiracy theory he emailed me. Not having a go at him - heās awesome. But the chat once again made me realise how dangerous these forwards are. Youāve probably seen the message which looks like this:
The email claims the Coronavirus is a biological weapon unleashed by China. The writer points to āevidenceā that no major Chinese cities have been affected by the virus and suggests the country may be hiding an antidote. After every statement it says āSOMETHING IS FISHY!ā
Not going into the flaws in logic or outright falsities of the email but hereās how my dad (74,m) reacted when he got the email from a mate. āI read it and thought it was interesting so I forwarded it onto 5 people to see what they thinkā. But he didnāt ask for their opinions.
Dad says he thought it was āa bit dodgyā but didnāt ask his mate who sent it to him where it came from. He didnāt see the problem with passing it on to maybe āstart a conversationā. But I was the only person he actually talked to about it.
The partial email chain shows 14 people. If they did what dad did and sent it to 5 friends thatās 70 otherās who got it. If THEY did what Dad did thatās 350 etc etc. No questions asked about veracity or source. Dad agrees itās probably ānot greatā and āa bit harsh on the Chineseā
Dad says he realises how dangerous forwarding without questions is. Heās an avid BBC News viewer/ listener but says he wants more reporting on this stuff. I told him we have an entire team on this full time (!). Clearly, as others have said, this is a cultural problem.
