Hugo: Hello. This is Fake News, 
Fact and Fiction from BBC
Learning English. I'm Hugo.
Sam: And I'm Sam.
Hugo: And as you see we're not 
in the studio today. Like in
many parts of the world we're 
practising social distancing
and working from home. How are 
you doing there, Sam?
Sam: I'm doing OK. Thank 
you Hugo, but it is definitely
a strange world that we're 
living in right now, isn't it?
And I don't know if you 
remember but in our first
programme we talked about 
stories going viral, so
spreading around the internet 
really quickly and well now,
what we have is a
real virus that has gone viral.
Hugo: Indeed. And that is going 
to be the focus of today's
programme. This pandemic has 
seen a large amount of fake
news attached to it. And as we 
sit at home browsing the
internet we may have come 
across many different stories
and theories of the causes of 
the virus or possible cures. So
today we're looking at fake 
news in the era of Covid-19.
But before we get to that Sam, 
do you have some vocabulary for us?
Sam: Yes I do. So today I'm 
focusing on some useful
vocabulary you might use if you 
think that what you've seen
online is not true.
Red flags are often used as a 
warning sign. In fact in
Britain when motor cars were 
first used on the streets the
law said that you had to have 
someone walking in front of the
vehicle carrying a red flag to 
warn other road users. These
days if a piece of information 
or a social media post
'raises a red flag' it means 
you are suspicious that it
might be fake news.
There are many red flags to 
watch out for. For example a
post that says something like 
'the media doesn't want you to
know this' or maybe it's a meme 
or a quote that claims that a
politician you don't like has 
said or done something
terrible. These posts might be 
easy to share or they might
even say 'you must share this!' 
or 'share this if you agree'.
Those are some examples of red 
flags that could make you doubt
how true the information is.
We all like to share things and 
we all like it when things we
share are liked. But before you 
hit that share button it's a
good idea to
fact-check the information the
verb fact-check, first used in 
the 1970s, simply means to
check the facts to confirm that 
the information is true.
There are quite a few fact-
checking websites which can
help you to verify, prove, 
or debunk, disprove,
the information. Debunk, a verb 
from the 1920s, means to prove
or demonstrate that something 
is not true that it is
completely false. So fact-
checking can help you to debunk
false claims made
on social media.
Now you might be wondering, as 
there is a word debunk, is
there a word bunk? Well yes 
there is but it's not a verb
it's a noun. Bunk and also 
bunkum are words that mean
nonsense. Interestingly they 
are political in origin and
come from the county of Buncombe
 in the United States. This
county was represented by a 
politician who talked a lot
without saying anything 
important. So he talked bunkum.
Now back to the studio.
Hugo: Very interesting Sam, it 
certainly wasn't bunkum but
there was a piece of fake news 
there wasn't there? 'Back to
the studio'?
Sam: Yes, well spotted. I did 
record that section before I
knew that we would be filming 
from home for this episode so I
hope you will
forgive me for that.
Hugo: Of course, now this 
pandemic has been dominating
the news for a long time now 
and there are many legitimate
areas of discussion to do with 
restrictions of movement,
testing, treatments
and the economy.
Sam: But we've also seen a lot 
of different theories about the
virus which are not supported 
by any evidence but which many
people have still shared . Some 
of these are what are known as
conspiracy theories.
Hugo: And examples of 
conspiracy theories are that
the earth is flat or that the 
moon landings were fake and
even though these theories are 
comprehensively debunked some
people still strongly 
believe them. To find out more
about conspiracy theories we 
spoke to Professor Joe
Uscinski. He's an associate 
professor of political science
at the University of Miami and 
the author of the book
'Conspiracy Theories, a 
Primer'. We asked him first to
define the term conspiracy 
theory and why people
believe them.
A conspiracy theory is an 
allegation or an idea that a
small group of powerful people 
are working in secret to effect
an event or circumstance in a 
way that benefits them and
harms the common good. And 
further this theory hasn't been
confirmed by the people we 
would look to to confirm such
events. There is nothing new 
about conspiracy theories and
you can find them if you look 
through almost any historical
document.
So for example the United 
States Declaration of
Independence has a few 
paragraphs about politics. But
then once you read 
beneath that, it's largely a
list of conspiracy theories 
about the king of England. So
they exist amongst all people 
at all times. They're very much
a human constant. People like 
to have their ideas make sense
when in combination with each 
other. So in order for someone
to adopt a conspiracy theory 
that theory has to match with
what they already believe.
So for example if you really 
like President Obama, you're
probably not going to think 
that he faked his birth
certificate to illegally become 
president. If you really like
President Bush, you're not 
going to buy the theory that he
blew up the
Twin Towers on 9/11.
So people's conspiracy theories 
have to match their underlying
world views that they already 
carry with them so that's why
people's conspiracy theories 
tend to match their political
persuasion whether they're 
liberal or conservative and
they have to match
their other world views too.
So for that reason it's 
actually more difficult to
convince people of conspiracy 
theories than you might think.
Hugo: So we only really buy 
into a conspiracy theory if
it's in line with what we 
already think about the world.
Sam: Yes and that ties in with 
a lot of the fake news research
doesn't it? So people will 
share things they believe to be
true or want to be true because 
the ideas match with their own
political or
ideological views.
I'd also like to mention the 
phrase 'buy' or 'buy into'
which he and you Hugo just 
used. So these both mean to
believe or accept that 
something is true and you can
use the phrase 'I don't buy it' 
if you are not convinced that
something is true. So 
for example, I heard somewhere
that eating lemons can cure 
coronavirus but I don't buy it.
Hugo: Absolutely. Now let's 
take a trip around the world.
We spoke to a number of our BBC 
colleagues across the globe to
find out what kind of fake news 
and conspiracy theories related
to Covid-19 have been shared on 
different continents and
apologies in advance for the 
quality of the line in some cases
Here in Afghanistan at the 
beginning of the Covid-19
crisis a mullah in the
west off the country, in Herat,
compared the number of 
fatalities in Muslim countries
with the number of deaths in 
Western countries and after
that said that these numbers 
showed us the Covid-19 and
coronavirus does not kill 
Muslims. But he was absolutely
wrong. Nowadays we see the 
number of deaths in Muslim
countries and here in 
Afghanistan is rising day by day.
We have received a video and 
some content with some links
to internet, to some documents 
and so on, saying that the
virus has been created by U.S. 
scientists who have helped
Chinese scientists in Wuhan.
But, less than two weeks later 
we have received another video
and other video in the 
same line, on the same topic
saying that the virus has been 
created by Chinese helped by
French scientists. But what was 
worse is that it's roughly the
same images. The same images 
that they're giving as evidence
of the of fraud. This shows 
clearly that it's a fake.
Here in Brazil there are a lot 
of messages on WhatsApp and
other social media showing 
photos and videos of people
opening up coffins in 
cemeteries and showing them
full of stones. And they use 
this to support the conspiracy
theory that people are like, 
increasing the number of deaths
artificially just to create 
problems to our president,
you know.
There are a lot of these 
messages with these images to
support this idea that this 
situation is created to, to
hurt him politically. But these 
images are from like a case two
years ago in a city in Sao 
Paulo state, in the country,
that was like, a fraud, to 
insurance you know, like two
years ago. So yeah this is one 
of the things that are
happening here because
of the pandemic.
Here in Hong Kong. I've heard 
many theories and you can
always find the most 
confidential intelligence in my
mother's mobile phone. There 
was a time I received an urgent
call from her only to find that 
she started reading a WhatsApp
message to me that was about 
how the U.S. military smuggled
coronavirus to Wuhan in order 
to destroy China's fast growing
economy. Of course that was 
absolutely groundless. However
the message was circulated 
widely in her social circle.
They are patriots who tend to 
believe any conspiracy theories
targeted at the U.S. authority. 
So even if I could convince her
that the information was fake 
this time she would only send
me another one next
time. It's just unstoppable.
Hugo: So we hear there some 
typical examples of fake news
such as real photographs being 
deliberately mis-described and
examples of the kind of belief 
in conspiracy theories
Professor Uscinski 
was talking about.
Sam: Yes and we hear that 
people want to share these
theories because they have a 
negative view of a particular
country and are happy to 
believe almost anything
negative they hear about them.
I'd also like to pick out a 
particular word that Billy Chan
used. He used the word 
'groundless' to refer to
some claims. 'Groundless' means 
not based on any evidence.
There's no proof for it.
Hugo: So there we had some 
insights from around the world.
Let's look closer to home now 
we're joined by our BBC
colleague Marianna Spring. 
Thanks for being with us. So if
you can just explain the work 
you do here at the BBC first.
Marianna: Yes, so I am the 
specialist disinformation
reporter which means that me 
along with a team at BBC
Trending who are part of the 
World Service and BBC
Monitoring and BBC Reality 
Check. And so we investigate
misleading posts as well as 
looking to tell the stories of
the people who fight and spread 
misinformation across the world.
Hugo: So you must be really 
really busy. Is it your feeling
that from what you've seen 
that disinformation, conspiracy
theories about Covid-19 are 
very different around the world?
Marianna: I think this pandemic 
is particularly interesting because
most of the misleading stuff 
we've seen has actually been
incredibly global. So there was 
one particularly viral case
that we tracked, a list of 
dodgy medical myths and tips,
and it hopped from the Facebook 
page of a man in the U.K. to
Facebook groups for Catholics 
living in India to the
Instagram account of a Ghanaian 
television presenter. So this
stuff really goes global and is 
attributed to a range of
different people, to hospitals, 
professors doctors in the US,
in Africa in Europe.
There's no limit to to who it 
can be who is alleged to have
started or spread the rumour. 
However. I do think there are
also specific instances of 
conspiracy theories or
misleading information that are 
specific to certain countries.
In other places, for instance 
in the U.K. there's been a
conspiracy theory relating to 
5G suggesting that 5G
technology could perhaps be 
linked to coronavirus and the
spread of it. Those claims are 
totally false. But I think
because here in the U.K. we've 
been talking lots about 5G
technology and how it will be 
rolled out they've felt relevant.
And then in other countries 
across the world there are
specific home remedies 
or suggestions, for instance in
China or Vietnam, which have 
caused harm to people because
they believed they would 
prevent or cure coronavirus.
Hugo: And how can we
in the mainstream media help
particularly in a time when 
we're being attacked, we're not
always trusted by people?
Marianna: I think there are two 
crucial things that we can do
to cover this area for  
different audiences. The first
one is not just to show our 
answers but to show the
workings. So when we reveal 
that something is false or
misleading we don't just put 
that assertion out there. We
also show how we reach that 
point. We show how we
investigated a specific post or 
specific claims and why they're
untrue. And I think that's a 
really good way of letting
people into how we operate and 
actually gaining their trust.
And secondly I think it's 
crucial to educate audiences in
how they can both spot and stop 
misleading stuff spreading
online. So there are certain 
red flags that we look out for
when we see something online 
that makes me think "Oh that
looks a bit suspicious". One of 
them will be these
introductions I've mentioned 
where a friend's brother's
cousin's uncle who's a doctor 
in New York has said something
or other. If we see an 
introduction like that it's
probably not right and you need 
to get to the bottom of who
that information has
come from.
And also often posts will say 
'you must read this - you must
share it' in capital letters or 
mismatched fonts and that can
also be another sign that 
something might be misleading.
Another key thing that we look 
out for are posts that play on
our emotions, often boring, 
often accurate information is
actually a bit more boring and 
it's the stuff that makes us
angry or or even happy that 
seems to give us answers we
were looking for that
tends to be misleading.
So that sort of leads around to 
to our top tips for stopping
the spread which which are 
essentially that we just need
to pause and think and reflect 
before we share anything and
repeating that message to 
audiences is incredibly
important in terms of stopping
and tackling the spread of 
misleading stuff online.
Hugo: Fascinating. 
Marianna Spring. Thanks for
being with us.
Marianna: Thank you.
Hugo: So Sam, anything you'd 
like to pick up from what
Marianna just said?
Sam: Yes. She said lots and 
lots of interesting things but
I'll only focus on two. She 
used the word 'misleading' a
couple of times. So 
'misleading' is basically
something that is trying to 
make you think a certain way
but isn't telling you all of 
the facts. The other word she
used was 'dodgy'. So this is 
basically something that is
suspicious. You can't really 
trust it. It's quite an
informal word and
it's an adjective.
Hugo: Thanks Sam, well that's 
about all we have time for. But
before we go, Sam please remind 
us of today's key vocabulary.
Sam: Of course. So today we 
looked at the phrase 'to raise
a red flag'. This is used when 
something about a post or a
meme or an image for example 
makes you think that it might
not be true or that
it might be fake news.
The verb 'to fact-check' is the 
process of checking the facts
so trying to find out if 
something is true or not.
If you 'debunk' something you 
show that it's not true.
And if you 'verify' something 
you show the opposite. So you
show that it is true.
If you 'buy' or 'buy 
into' something, it means that
you believe it.
You think it's true.
If something is 'groundless', 
it has no evidence to support
it.
Then we looked at 'misleading' 
which is something that makes
you think a certain way even 
though maybe it doesn't present
all of the facts.
And something 'dodgy' is 
something that is suspicious,
maybe not trustworthy.
Hugo: Thank you very much Sam 
and thank you for watching this
special at home version of 
Fake News, Fact and Fiction.
Until next time,
goodbye and stay safe.
Sam: Bye bye everyone.
