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Whether it is fire, or storm, earthquake or flood, what the magnitude of devastation it would cause depends both on pre-calamity preparedness and post-calamity reaction of the population stricken by any disaster. The destruction in question is not just about deaths, injuries and loss of property. However, in our materialistic outlook, after deaths, collapse of buildings and other physical infrastructure gets the most attention. Attention to the victims of physical injury comes next. Unfortunately, in our society, victims of post-disaster psychological injury get the least attention. Nowadays, with the advent of social media, the psychological harm caused to the disaster victims has amplified due to information overload, misinformation and rumour. A research article published in the prestigious British science journal, Nature, in its July 27, 2024 issue stated that the widespread dissemination of negative online information might generate cyber violence or lead to serious adverse psychological outcomes.
The finding was the outcome of a study that considered a natural disaster event involving avoidable deaths and child casualties as an example to identify emotional contagion and simulation interventions. The data according to the study was derived from the aftermath of a flash flood in the Loncaogou Scenic Area, Sichuan Province, China. The analysis found that negative emotions were more persistent and contagious than positive emotions. That negative emotions spread and impact the audience, here the victims in a post-disaster dispensation, faster and deeper than positive emotions, we know from our everyday experience. Especially, rumours and fake reports about the fallouts from a disaster is a common experience in the present-day world. Except those deliberately involved in causing psychological trauma in a populace following a natural calamity, those behind such misinformation as well as disinformation are, often, unaware of the fact that the rumours and fake pictures of damage on the social media may cause widespread anxiety, depression, Post traumatic Disorder (PTSD) and other forms of fatal consequences. Such conditions including panic reaction among the disaster victims may even obstruct relief operation and their efforts to seek safety measures.
Consider the deluge of rumours and fake news that followed November 21 (Friday)'s earthquake in Bangladesh of which the epicentre was (at Narsingdi) not far from the capital city of Dhaka. Considering the actual number of deaths and damage to infrastructures so far reported since last Friday morning, the earthquake caused more psychological damage to the people across the country than physical harm. However, this is not meant to anyway belittle the casualties of the tremor so far reported. Every death counts and the families affected by such deaths know that whatever the reason behind the deaths, road accidents or earthquakes. But here we are concerned more about how social-media-created rumours following sudden disaster like earthquake might negatively impact the direct victims of the calamity or those who just listen to or read about those on the social media.
A fact check conducted by a local media house, for example, found that a picture was spreading on the social media to the effect an eight-storey building had collapsed in Dhaka following Friday's tremor. But a reverse search found that the image of the collapsed building doing the rounds on the social media bore some similarity to that of the Lafayette building of the Detroit city in the USA. The building is learnt to have been demolished in 2010. However, some difference in the image of the taken down Lafayette building which was a 14-storey (with one floor as basement) one, while the one in picture passing for the damaged building in Dhaka, was showing 11 storeys over the ground.
The fake picture about the so-called 'destroyed Dhaka building' had other points of difference with surroundings of the demolished Lafyette building in that the latter had high-rise structures around it. But the fake 'Dhaka building' did not have images of high-rise buildings surrounding it. However, the search to find if it (the fake collapsed Dhaka building) was created with the help of AI could finally come up with an answer. It was indeed done with help of AI. Similarly, there were also pictures of some leaning buildings among which was a two-storey one with a big crack in the middle, while other parts of the building showing as unaffected. Its picture was spreading on the facebook. The picture also had a poetic caption that said how helpless humans were before the forces of nature. However, reverse image search proved futile as no similar source image could be found. But analysis of websites containing AI-generated pictures of buildings provided some clues to the pictures spreading on the social media. Clearly, the picture of the part-bifurcated two-storey building has no copy in the real world. Also, take the fake video of the collapsed flyover at Diabari in the capital city. The fake video-link of the collapsed flyover was also spread to some Indian news media. The fake report was briefly carried by some news media in Dhaka. Analysis reached the conclusion that the picture of the collapsed flyover was hundred per cent AI-generated. Interestingly, some news media even circulated report of the tilted building of the Chief Adviser at Tejgaon. Though the media houses deleted the reports and regretted to have broadcasted those, it was circulating on the social media all the same. But the misinformed public, all of whom may not be educated enough to tell the real from the fake images, might be unduly panicked by such pictures or videos.
Many people, just out of fear, have already left Dhaka city to neighbouring districts with fewer buildings and more open spaces. Maybe those areas are safer in case of a devastating tremor striking the city. But if the city is the source of their livelihood, how long can they stay away from their work? For no one can predict when the next jolt will come -- it may be the next moment, the next week or a century later. Worse, no place on earth can guarantee one ultimate safety. Moreover, the earthquake-related fear arises mainly from the public's unfamiliarity with this kind of danger. But when it comes to familiar circumstances but with dangers lurking around there, people do not show signs of much fear. Consider, for instance, a bus travel in Bangladesh. Will the fear of a possible road accident leading to even death, which is a common experience in this country, stop a person from travelling?
So, what is important is to increase public awareness about the danger of earthquake or about any kind of disaster including fires, floods, storms or tsunamis. But the worst public enemies are fearmongers who use the social media to spread fake reports and pictures of deaths and devastations that did never happen.