An Asian Perspective on Combating Misinformation: What Have We Learned?

What lessons can be drawn from these studies of the fight against COVID-19 misinformation? This final chapter summarizes key findings, draws conclusions from the cross-societal findings, and uncovers a remarkable pattern highlighting the trajectory of COVID-19 misinformation in four of Asia’s leading cities: Unequal access to digital information leads to uneven diffusion of misinformation, producing differential harms to the public. Our cross-societal study deepens the understanding of how access to digital information accounts for the level of exposure to and spread of COVID-19 misinformation and differential impacts of the misinformation on citizens’ risk perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge. An Asian perspective with the following characteristics emerges from the findings: (1) the control of misinformation showcases authoritarian governments’ emphasis on development of IT hardware (e.g., infrastructure, networks, and devices) at the expense of the software of social-techno conditions (e.g., marketplace of ideas, unrestricted access, and free flow of information); (2) the general public’s confidence in its government’s ability to provide solutions to the infodemic exemplifies its high institutional trust; (3) a government’s approach to pandemic-control drives the dynamic process and effects of misinformation. We end by providing recommendations for policy action to equip citizens to deal with future public health crises.