The Washington Post - 03.03.2020

A16 eZ Re THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAy, MARCH 3 , 2020

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

BY TONY ROMM

Hours after Nigeria confirmed
its first case of coronavirus friday,
olumide m akanjuola, w ho lives in
the state of Lagos, opened
W hatsApp and was bombarded
with a “sense o f panic.”
Users on the messaging service
had c opied, pasted a nd f orwarded
notes warning that local flights,
hotels and schools might have
been contaminated. None of the
information had been verified,
makanjuola said, but multiple ver-
sions of it snaked their way
through private WhatsApp
groups, some with hundreds of
participants.
“The virus is closer to us than
we think,” two of the messages
ominously c oncluded.
As government leaders and
health professionals race to con-
tain an outbreak on the verge of a
pandemic, they are simultaneous-
ly battling another hard-to-defeat
scourge: the explosion of half-
truths and outright falsehoods on-
line. Nowhere is the threat more
dire than on WhatsApp, a service
largely hidden from public scruti-
ny, vast i n its global reach and often
at the center of some of the world’s
most panic-inducing conspiracy
theories.
People in Nigeria, Singapore,
Brazil, Pakistan, Ireland and o ther
countries say they’ve seen a flood
of misinformation about corona-
virus on WhatsApp, from the
number of people affected to the
way the illness is transmitted and
the availability of treatments. The
messages and voice memos have
instilled fear, troubled businesses
and created public health head-
aches for governments, including
Botswana, which pleaded with
people last month to be wary of
what they’re reading and sharing
on the service.
WhatsApp’s parent company,
facebook, has labored to vet or
remove similar harmful coronavi-
rus-related content on its name-
sake social network. But the tech
giant c an’t m onitor WhatsApp the
same way. C onversations there are
encrypted, meaning messages can
be read only by the sender and
recipients — not the company,
even in the midst of an urgent,
deadly international health c risis.

makanjuola, a sexual-health

and rights advocate, said he ap-

preciated the delicate balance be-

tween security and freedom of ex-

pression that made oversight of

WhatsApp s o difficult. B ut, he said

in an interview, “the idea people

can transfer panic is something

that really does worry me.”

Carl Woog, a spokesman for

WhatsApp, said the company had

been vigilant in trying to reduce

the reach of misinformation,

stressing it is working with gov-

ernments and others “to respond

to the immense challenge present-

ed by the C oronavirus.”

“WhatsApp i s an important t ool

for health workers to coordinate

and we have engaged health min-

istries around the world to pro-

vide simple ways for citizens to

receive accurate information

about the virus,” he said in a state-

ment.

With 2 billion users globally,

WhatsApp has emerged as one of

the world’s most popular messag-

ing systems. Users flocked to the

service in its e arly days, when it cost

only a dollar each year, because it

was much cheaper than texting

over fee-heavy traditional phone

services. Now free, it ranks as one of

the top downloads throughout Eu-

rope, Africa and Asia, particularly

in countries where telecom infra-

structure is lacking.

Like facebook, though, the me-

teoric rise of WhatsApp also has

brought myriad unanticipated

challenges globally. malicious ac-

tors at times have seized on What-

sApp’s expansive audience — and

its easy tools to share text, audio,

photos and videos among groups

of friends — to push harmful mes-

sages t o large numbers o f people.

In India, viral misinformation

on WhatsApp triggered real-

world violence. At one point in

2018, experts could trace two doz-

en deaths to fake news, including

false reports of child kidnappings,

that spread on the service. And in

Brazil, WhatsApp has served as a

staging ground for political false-

hoods, including a raft of rumors

that imperiled the country’s most

recent election.

Under global pressure, What-

sApp has labored to improve its

digital defenses — labeling mes-

sages that had been shared, for

example, while restricting the

number of times content could be

forwarded to others. researchers

say some of the technical tweaks

have helped by introducing what

they call friction, slowing the pro-

liferation of propaganda, conspir-

acy theories and other harmful

content.

Woog, the spokesman, added

th at WhatsApp had run local edu-

cation campaigns around the

world “to help encourage people

not to spread rumors.” WhatsApp

also bans millions of accounts

each month for sending bulk or

automated messages.

But WhatsApp’s prized security

features also p revent the c ompany

from moderating content with the

same aggressiveness as public-fac-

ing social-networking services,

which have invested heavily in

workers and technology t o protect

users from abuse. The lack of visi-

bility has frustrated regulators, in-

cluding in the United States,

where Attorney General William

P. B arr said WhatsApp s tymies t he

investigation of crimes, including

child sexual exploitation. Authori-

ties in the United States and

around the world h ave threatened

to force facebook to give govern-

ments a ccess to encrypted data.

Even if WhatsApp could scan

every message, users might bristle

to learn a profit-seeking t ech g iant

inserted itself into their private,

sensitive conversations. The re-

sult is that the very features that

make WhatsApp so alluring to

people — and so important to fa-

cebook — also heighten the likeli-

hood that i t could become a breed-

ing ground for misinformation.

In recent weeks, WhatsApp us-

ers throughout Africa and Asia

reported a stream of t ext messages

and voice memos in private chan-

nels that pitch fake coronavirus

cures, according to copies of the

messages annoyed recipients

shared with The Washington Post

and published on sites such as

Twitter. Some of the recirculated

texts wrongly list garlic, salt w ater

and a type of tea as natural reme-

dies f or the outbreak, even t hough

no treatments exist.

other p roblematic m essages in-

flate the number of people affect-

ed or push widely debunked con-

spiracy t heories about t he corona-

virus and its origins. often, users

pass along these hoaxes — even if

unwittingly — in groups of con-

tacts t hey create. T hese groups are

often capped at 250 members, but

one falsehood shared in multiple

channels s till can become a conta-

gion of its own.

To lu ogunlesi, a top n ew-media

adviser to Nigerian President mu-

hammadu Buhari, said he has

seen a wave of c onspiracy theories

about coronavirus metastasizing

this way. o ne alarming WhatsApp

message he shared with The Post

said falsely that a major oil compa-

ny on Banana Island, Lagos, had

been placed on lockdown after a

worker had contracted the coro-

navirus.

misinformation i s hardly a new

phenomenon i n Nigeria: In 2 018, a

hoax that Buhari had died and

been replaced by a clone went viral

online, including on WhatsApp,

which ogunlesi described as the

most popular communications

platform in the c ountry.

Nigerians generally have be-

come more digitally savvy, w ith a n

“increasing awareness now about

the ubiquity and dangers” of mis-

information, according t o ogunle-

si. But he still has “started polic-

ing” WhatsApp groups, he said,

trying to push back on fake news

and encouraging his peers to do

the same.

“I’m not quite sure how much

they can do in terms of actually

policing WhatsApp content the

way they police f acebook content,”

ogunlesi said of the t ech giant. “If I

had a message to the tech compa-

nies, it would be to invest a lot

more m oney in digital literacy.

“Everybody is dealing with

this,” h e continued. “ This is a glob-

al thing, and nobody has quite

figured out what needs to be

done.”

The government of Botswana

warned people about WhatsApp

last month. “The ministry notes

with concern the misleading in-

formation circulating on social

media particularly facebook and

WhatsApp, about #coronavirus

situation in the country,” local au-

thorities tweeted on feb. 2. The

Embassy of Botswana in Washing-

ton d id not r espond to requests f or

comment.

Government officials in Brazil

— long aware of the power and

pain of WhatsApp — similarly

sounded an urgent note o f caution.

The state’s ministry of Health

tracked and vetted inaccurate

WhatsApp messages about the

number of citizens who are sick,

along w ith other hoaxes, including

one that wrongly said Chinese im-

ports are tainted with the illness.

“false information causes pan-

ic in the population and hinders

the investigative work of the com-

petent authorities,” the govern-

ment warned. A spokesman for

the Embassy of Brazil in Washing-

ton d id not r espond to requests f or

comment.

Hoping to help governments

grappling with the coronavirus,

WhatsApp said it has offered help

to regulators in 15 countries so far,

including with efforts to set up

dedicated tip lines on the service

for accurate health information. In

Singapore, where regulators just

last week warned about “unsub-

stantiated information over What-

sApp,” h ealth officials n ow are able

to pass along daily, credible up-

dates to anyone who signs up.

But the battle against rumors

and hoaxes is difficult to wage,

especially in real time, as busi-

nesses and users have learned in

recent weeks. A digital concierge

for the Conrad hotel in Dublin

spent at least some portion of fri-

day telling people it was not in fact

shuttered because of a suspected

case of coronavirus o n the premis-

es. myths about local hotel lock-

downs appeared to originate in

online c hannels, i ncluding Twitter

and WhatsApp, s ocial media com-

plaints suggest.

“There are no confirmed cases

of coronavirus, and the hotel is

operating as usual,” said John

Brooks, a spokesman for Hilton,

which owns the facility. The com-

pany declined to comment on the

role of WhatsApp in stoking ru-

mors.

other WhatsApp users are

fighting back.

In Karachi, Pakistan, local avi-

culturist Urooj Zia said she saw

misinformation last week in an

unlikely place — WhatsApp

groups dedicated to parrot breed-

ers. The dubious messages said

nearby Aga Khan Hospital had

released a patient after a “false

indication of the v irus.”

The text she received, and

shared with The Post, concluded:

“Don’t panic. Everything is under

control.”

A policy researcher by back-

ground, Zia told The Post she

learned from doctors that no such

patient had b een discharged. Still,

she s aid two people had c irculated

the message in two different

groups, each with hundreds of fol-

lowers, raising the potential that i t

spread e ven f urther.

“Debunking crap online,” she

said, “is what I do because some-

one h as to.”

[email protected]

Fake cures, conspiracy theories proliferate on WhatsApp

PIus utOmI eKPeI/AgeNCe FRANCe-PResse/getty ImAges

Visitors to a hospital in Lagos, nigeria, collect masks and gloves on

Friday, when the country’s first coronavirus case was confirmed.

Chinese authorities’ hands are

tied when it comes to asking

banks to forgive late payments or

issue even more risky loans to bail

out faltering businesses, said An-

drew Collier, a managing director

at orient Capital research who

frequently speaks to Chinese

bank executives.

The coronavirus hit at a time

when many Chinese banks were

already wobbling with bad loans

and households and businesses

were burdened by massive levels

of debt.

China’s leaders “are trying to

straddle between having an eco-

nomic meltdown and crashing

the banks,” C ollier said. He a dded,

“They will rather let some busi-

nesses go belly up than watch

banks collapse.”

Survival mode

Across the country, a few small

businesses are hoping to survive

by creative means rather than

government bailout.

owspace, a chain of bookstores

and cultural spaces that is popu-

lar with China’s urban literary

and art crowd, is asking book

lovers to make online donations

of between $7 and $1,100 as reve-

nue plunges 80 percent. Expatri-

ates in Beijing recently launched

a Gofundme crowdfunding cam-

paign to raise $330,000 to save

Comptoirs de france, a

l ong-established bakery chain

with 16 locations.

Holed up in an apartment in

Wuhan, Zuo Weiwei, an entrepre-

neur who has been selling cos-

metics and nutritional supple-

ments online, said the congestion

and breakdown in China’s ship-

ping industry forced her to end

her business.

“Dozens of customers who had

preordered products from me

asked for refunds,” she said. “I

simply couldn’t take it anymore.”

Hundreds of boxes of beauty

masks, dietary supplements and

silver-coated Buddhist amulets

lay piling up in her house. Under

these circumstances, Zuo said,

she is drastically downsizing her

ambitions.

“I’ve given up hopes of selling

stuff and making a fortune,” she

said. “my wish for this year is for

me and my family to stay healthy

and not get infected.”

[email protected]

Ly ric Li in Beijing and tiffany Liang in

Hong Kong contributed to this report.

anxiety. People simply do not

want to go out and spend.

“If people don’t eat at restau-

rants, that doesn’t just affect the

restaurant but also the seafood

supplier or farmer. If people don’t

shop for clothes, that affects the

silkmaker and weaver,” said Dai

ruochen, a Peking University

economist who helps lead the

survey group. “The economic im-

pact isn’t contained; it sends rip-

ples up level by level.”

Then there is the effect on

employment. In recent weeks,

companies across the country

have posted online notices apolo-

gizing to customers for closing

and to employees for mass lay-

offs.

A debt cloud darkens

In the once buzzing metropolis

of Shenzhen, Cao Tianfei closed a

roast-fish restaurant and paid a

$36,000 penalty to break his rent-

al contract in a mall that was shut

down for two weeks in february.

He laid off 15 workers.

“I felt like I abandoned my

kids,” he said. “But I had no

choice. Every morning I wake up,

rent and salaries just get sucked

out of me.”

Cao said the unpredictable na-

ture of the epidemic had scram-

bled his planning. “I’ve never

considered borrowing money

from the bank, because I can’t see

the end of the virus,” he said.

“Even if it ended today, it would

still be a long way for us to get out

of this.”

To counter the uncertainty,

China’s leaders have tried to proj-

ect calm. National authorities

have set a late-April target for the

virus to be fully contained, and a

central-bank official took to inter-

national media to tout how China

has rolled out no less than 30 poli-

cy measures, many of which spe-

cifically target “small and micro”

businesses, to ensure a quick re-

bound.

“The most likely scenario is a

V-shaped curve, which means a

decline in economic activities fol-

lowed by a rapid recovery, with

the total economic impact rela-

tively contained,” People’s B ank of

China deputy governor Chen Yulu

predicted in a financial Times

op-ed.

But there are risks to China’s

desperate attempt to restart its

economy, and many businesses

will inevitably die off, economists

predict.

“This is getting more and more

hopeless by the day.”

Several weeks into an epidemic

that brought the country to a

standstill, Chinese officials and

economists are increasingly wor-

ried about the devastation

wrought on a crucial part of the

economy: restaurants and retail-

ers, karaoke halls and family-

owned factories — countless

small and midsize businesses

that collectively employ 80 per-

cent of China’s workers and pro-

duce 68 percent of the country’s

business revenue.

“only 30 percent of small and

medium businesses nationwide

have resumed work,” Shu Cha-

ohui, an official at the ministry of

Industry and Information Te ch-

nology, told reporters Tuesday.

“It’s a pretty severe situation.”

How severe is it? A nationwide

survey led in february by Peking

University found half the coun-

try’s small businesses will run out

of cash within three months, and

14 percent might not survive past

mid-march. Unlike large state

conglomerates or multinational

companies that could weather

the storm, China’s small busi-

nesses say they simply do not

have cash reserves to continue

paying wages and rent.

And while manufacturing gi-

ants that mass-produce gadgets

such as Apple iPhones can rely on

the government to charter buses

and trains to shuttle migrant

workers back to their factories,

nearly 40 percent of smaller busi-

nesses say they cannot get their

workers back to Chinese cities

because of transportation bottle-

necks and quarantine restric-

tions, according to the Peking

University study.

The Chinese government has

been trying to prop up these

small, vulnerable businesses —

but with uncertain consequences.

ministries and bank regulators

have been pressuring banks to

extend loans to cash-strapped

businesses. They h ave asked lend-

ers to push back repayment dead-

lines or look the other way when

payments are late. They have also

waived requirements for busi-

nesses such as paying for social

security.

Beyond that, experts say, p olicy

options are limited when swaths

of the country are effectively un-

der lockdown and a cloud of

cHInA from A

Small businesses in China losing hope

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