Social Media during a pandemic
Sri Lankans are talking with each other more than ever before on a nationwide scale as the ‘home stay’ and 24-hour curfew regimes lengthen in the densely populated urban metro regions especially but also throughout the country and the whole nation tensely lives through this ominous pandemic.
“Are you all OK? Taking all precautions?” we are asking each other more than ever before at a single point of time on this island. With an average of two mobile telephones per Sri Lankan, the highest mobile phone penetration among all SAARC nations, the phone lines are truly ‘buzzing’.
Actually, ‘buzzing’ is an inadequate adjective given that so many videos shared among us reverberate with loud sound – loud laughs, shouted comic dialogues, blaring music and stranger noises as bored people get imaginative in cyberspace using the amazing digital technology our smartphones now possess.
Today’s smartphones, especially the more sophisticated ones, easily record videos and our telecommunications system enables immediate sharing and forwarding. The communication is not just across the island but across the globe, reaching Sri Lankans in the Diaspora as well.
Firstly, the nature of the crisis we face affects all of us, not just those directly infected. A whole city neighbourhood may get cordoned off if one or two or more cases of infection are detected. And the fear of the rapid spread makes us worry about our relations, friends and colleagues enough to pick up the phone and message them, if not call them.
The fear of deadly disease is something that stirs our natural instincts for species survival more than war and even most natural disasters since this death threat is something that works within our very bodies. We need to check on each other.
The added boost to telecommunications traffic is our enforced immobility and partial isolation within households. Stuck at home and with time on our hands due to either fully suspended work routines or drastically reduced ‘work-from-home’ routines, people are happy to go on the Net.
The majority of Sri Lankans go on the Internet via their smartphones. Millions are busy sharing all kinds of things via Web-based communications – from the most practical matters like supply delivery opportunities to jokes, to information about pandemic trends, to government announcements, to gossip about bio-warfare conspiracies to sexist jokes, to pornography and crude racism.
The biggest concern is the messaging that speculates about ‘suppressed information’ that hides the ‘real’ situation which is alleged to be far worse than the ‘official’ pronouncements or even the reportage of the mainstream professional news media.
The sheer density of the networks is such that a single viciously misleading message rapidly spreads with considerable anonymity unless it is directly tracked by the authorities in collaboration with the server companies.
One dominant gossip disinformation is about the deliberate design of this virus species for malicious purposes either by a single country or by some fanatical group. Another disinformation threat is the constant speculation about the lengthening of the curfew or the geographical broadening of the lockdown
The sophistication of our cyber information systems is such that the authorities can and do make announcements intermittently as and when contingencies demand it. Just as much as the authorities may make pronouncements at any time, likewise, public speculation on the Net, especially on social media, happens at any time.
There is also the constant danger of elements in society or on the global stage (geopolitically) deliberately injecting dangerous and destabilising speculation into mass of messaging on social media.
Whether innocently spontaneous or, geopolitically deliberate, such speculation on social media about sudden ‘total lockdowns’ could be enough to generate public panic over supply needs and medical needs. Disinformation ripple effects on assessments of production and markets could affect the economy. Carefully laid plans by the Government or Health authorities or law and order agencies could be undermined by such messaging.
Similar speculative messaging could fuel inter-ethnic mistrust and fears. Already we have experienced some volume of ethnic hate speech targeting certain communities. This kind of inter-ethnic virulence considerably distracts from the need to be fully alert and, socially co-operative, against the pandemic.
We simply cannot afford to indulge in anything that undermines the social discipline and focus needed to survive this pandemic. The slightest laxity is enough for yet another infection of a Sri Lankan. Every added infection case further delays our trajectory toward recovery from the pandemic.
This is why the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and its ancillary monitoring bodies are busy watching public communications to interdict any such disruptive messaging and can be expected to punish those individuals and groups indulging in such behaviour.
The citizenry, too, must join in this endeavour with self-discipline. We simply must restrain our urge to ‘forward’ any or every message we get. And whatever we do communicate with others must contribute to the health of all of us and not pander to our subjective whims and pet hates.
Sri Lankans are talking with each other more than ever before on a nationwide scale as the ‘home stay’ and 24-hour curfew regimes lengthen in the densely populated urban metro regions especially but also throughout the country and the whole nation tensely lives through this ominous pandemic.
“Are you all OK? Taking all precautions?” we are asking each other more than ever before at a single point of time on this island. With an average of two mobile telephones per Sri Lankan, the highest mobile phone penetration among all SAARC nations, the phone lines are truly ‘buzzing’.
Actually, ‘buzzing’ is an inadequate adjective given that so many videos shared among us reverberate with loud sound – loud laughs, shouted comic dialogues, blaring music and stranger noises as bored people get imaginative in cyberspace using the amazing digital technology our smartphones now possess.
Today’s smartphones, especially the more sophisticated ones, easily record videos and our telecommunications system enables immediate sharing and forwarding. The communication is not just across the island but across the globe, reaching Sri Lankans in the Diaspora as well.
Firstly, the nature of the crisis we face affects all of us, not just those directly infected. A whole city neighbourhood may get cordoned off if one or two or more cases of infection are detected. And the fear of the rapid spread makes us worry about our relations, friends and colleagues enough to pick up the phone and message them, if not call them.
The fear of deadly disease is something that stirs our natural instincts for species survival more than war and even most natural disasters since this death threat is something that works within our very bodies. We need to check on each other.
The added boost to telecommunications traffic is our enforced immobility and partial isolation within households. Stuck at home and with time on our hands due to either fully suspended work routines or drastically reduced ‘work-from-home’ routines, people are happy to go on the Net.
The majority of Sri Lankans go on the Internet via their smartphones. Millions are busy sharing all kinds of things via Web-based communications – from the most practical matters like supply delivery opportunities to jokes, to information about pandemic trends, to government announcements, to gossip about bio-warfare conspiracies to sexist jokes, to pornography and crude racism.
The biggest concern is the messaging that speculates about ‘suppressed information’ that hides the ‘real’ situation which is alleged to be far worse than the ‘official’ pronouncements or even the reportage of the mainstream professional news media.
The sheer density of the networks is such that a single viciously misleading message rapidly spreads with considerable anonymity unless it is directly tracked by the authorities in collaboration with the server companies.
One dominant gossip disinformation is about the deliberate design of this virus species for malicious purposes either by a single country or by some fanatical group. Another disinformation threat is the constant speculation about the lengthening of the curfew or the geographical broadening of the lockdown
The sophistication of our cyber information systems is such that the authorities can and do make announcements intermittently as and when contingencies demand it. Just as much as the authorities may make pronouncements at any time, likewise, public speculation on the Net, especially on social media, happens at any time.
There is also the constant danger of elements in society or on the global stage (geopolitically) deliberately injecting dangerous and destabilising speculation into mass of messaging on social media.
Whether innocently spontaneous or, geopolitically deliberate, such speculation on social media about sudden ‘total lockdowns’ could be enough to generate public panic over supply needs and medical needs. Disinformation ripple effects on assessments of production and markets could affect the economy. Carefully laid plans by the Government or Health authorities or law and order agencies could be undermined by such messaging.
Similar speculative messaging could fuel inter-ethnic mistrust and fears. Already we have experienced some volume of ethnic hate speech targeting certain communities. This kind of inter-ethnic virulence considerably distracts from the need to be fully alert and, socially co-operative, against the pandemic.
We simply cannot afford to indulge in anything that undermines the social discipline and focus needed to survive this pandemic. The slightest laxity is enough for yet another infection of a Sri Lankan. Every added infection case further delays our trajectory toward recovery from the pandemic.
This is why the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and its ancillary monitoring bodies are busy watching public communications to interdict any such disruptive messaging and can be expected to punish those individuals and groups indulging in such behaviour.
The citizenry, too, must join in this endeavour with self-discipline. We simply must restrain our urge to ‘forward’ any or every message we get. And whatever we do communicate with others must contribute to the health of all of us and not pander to our subjective whims and pet hates.
