Information Governance Framework to Achieve Information Hygiene in South Africa

Background Of Information Hygiene Concept

The concept of information hygiene as a paradigm, which has been with us for many years and premised on the idea of sanitising information before it is shared to arrest misinformation, is considered as having gained prominence in recent years owing to the viral spread of fake news and misinformation. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is one such global experience that witnessed a massive outbreak of misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracies surrounding this coronavirus. One good example of fake news in the South African context is the story of the Thembisa 10 which alleged that a South African woman gave birth to 10 babies in June 2021. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) notes that the story was first reported by the Independent Online (IOL), a media group that owns the Pretoria News and other newspapers and online news sites in South Africa. The story was later reported as fake news and yet, the IOL stood by its reporting. As a result,, more media houses such as the BBC and News24 ran the story and it began to trend in various media platforms and social media. However, the story drew suspicion after Pretoria News failed to disclose the hospital where the babies were born and later, a series of hospitals in Gauteng Province of South Africa, came out to deny their involvement. The story was later found to be untrue.