Government of Mexico: "The 'infodemic' is a pandemic that must be fought"

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AMLO warns of the infodemic spreading in Mexico 3:00

(CNN Spanish) - The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, indicated that he will dedicate some of his morning conferences to report on what he called the other epidemic facing the country: the dissemination of false messages through social networks.

"The main vaccine that we Mexicans have is our high degree of awareness. What I repeat and I repeat, the people of Mexico are among the peoples with the least political illiteracy, this is due to the rebirth that occurred in recent years, to what we have also called the revolution of consciences ”.

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Jenaro Villamil, president of the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State, who was appointed to present the subject, expressed that this phenomenon is known as an “infodemic”, a term that he said “is used by the World Health Organization to refer to the overabundance of false or malicious information about the pandemic and its rapid spread through people and social network users. ”

He assured that in recent months a series of false messages have begun to circulate, the impact of which has resulted in the attacks that have been suffered in the country by health personnel who care for patients with covid-19.

"Attacks on nurses, nurses on doctors, health personnel, it is not a casual matter, it has to do with the infodemic, it has to do with this strategy of criminalizing, signaling or feeding prejudice, so that the responsibility of the coronavirus is from a professional entity or someone. This is very worrying".

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He indicated that the infodemic affects everyone "because the rapid transmission of false information generates fear, mistrust, polarization, instead of generating solidarity, empathy and more forceful social action."

For his part, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pointed out that, through social networks, there are paid accounts to attack the fourth transformation, a term he has used to characterize his government and for this reason, he has called the National Electoral Institute to to audit political parties and those who aspire to create new ones, to find out if they are allocating public resources for these purposes.

In response to the comments @TwitterMexico, he expressed that "it coincides with the voices that demand greater transparency about the financing received by those actors who carry out this type of automation or coordination. On our side, we will continue to work to protect public conversation. ”