I've been researching and writing about misinformation campaigns meant to derail community health intiatives since the last 1990s. Widespread misunderstanding and myth-spreading is epecially insideous in how it interferes with human, community and institutional development, with health initiatives and with elections. It was rarely discussed back in the 1990s, when I tried to, and it was still not considered much of an issue for 20 years after I was trying to talk about it. But around 2014, it became a pandemic, and now, it's a plague that affects every person on Earth in some way.
Folklore, rumors (or rumours) and urban myths / urban legends, as well as organized misinformation campaigns and "fake news", are now interfering with relief and development activities, and government initiatives, including public health initiatives -- to the point of bringing such to a grinding halt. These campaigns are creating ongoing misunderstandings among communities and cultures, preventing people from seeking help, encouraging people to engage in unhealthy and even dangerous practices, cultivating mistrust of people and institutions, have even lead to mobs of people attacking someone or others for no reason other than something they heard from a friend of a friend of a friend, motivated legislators to introduce laws to address something that doesn't exist, and influenced elections. With social media and rapid texting apps, spreading misinformation is easier than ever.
In 2004, I started gathering and sharing both examples of this phenomena, and recommendations on preventing folklore, rumors and urban myths from interfering with development and aid/relief efforts and government initiatives. I did this entirely on my own, as a volunteer, with no funding from anyone, and feeling very alone as I tried to both sound the alarm and offer meaningful solutions. Now, these decades later, I update the information as my free time allows.
What I'm also wondering: are their any efforts in developing and transitional countries similar to the myth-busting Straight Dope column by Cecil Adams in the USA? Or truthorfiction.com? Or hoax-slayer.com? Or MythBusters? If you know of such, please contact me.
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