As if the Coronavirus itself has not caused a sense of overwhelming panic and fear, fake news and misinformation are causing heightened anxiety across the world.

A post doing the rounds on social platforms, stating that a woman, aged 31-years-old, has contracted the Coronavirus in Carolina, is causing panic, especially to those in Carolina and towns in close proximity.

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The post features the SABC-logo and unfortunately more often than not, that is good enough for most people to deem it credible.

This is in fact not true, not to say that it cannot and will not reach these small communities, but people need to sift through posts that feature highly questionable attributes.

Here are some pointers to verify the validity of questionable posts that you might receive or stumble across:

• Visit reliable mainstream media websites (Any Caxton publisher will suffice) if they did not carry such a big story, then surely you need to question why
• Do a quick Google search to see whether any mainstream media has deemed this circulating post a hoax
• When searching on Google, add words such as hoax or fake news to your search query
• Look at the composition of the article/post and take note of the words as well as the spelling, more often than not you can see just by reading the post that it could be improbable or false
• Make sure about the publisher and read the About-section on dodgy websites – descriptions in this section sometimes state that they use satirical content
• Does the person circulating the post identify himself, from which organisation he/she is and have YOU phoned and researched to verify the allegations before passing it on to the next gullible person?

Herewith the post in question:

Stringent protocols in place:

As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments.

As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online.

Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed.

Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol.

A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19.

Readers with any comments or queries may contact the National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).

Make sure to read the Highvelder Newspaper for the complete article.

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