Developing Counter Strategy for Information Warfare in Health Sector–Sifting ‘Real’ from ‘Fake’ News

Abstract

Information warfare (IW) involves manipulation, destruction or denying access to information altogether, while maintaining the target’s trust. Psychological operations, a type of IW, concerns majority of public as it aims to degrade their morale through infodemic and fake news. Fake news related to healthcare was present even before the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a broad range of content that comes under it, like communication of inaccurate information with or without any intention to cause harm, mistaken interpretation of satires and information spread with definitive socio-political agenda. We discuss here the various facets of fake news including its burden in the health sector, pathogenesis, the different psychological perspectives of its spread and strategies to counter it.