Dangerous myths about vaccines. Misleading miracle cures. Viral health “tips” with no basis in science. Disinformation and misinformation about health is spreading faster than ever online – and the Scottish Government is fighting back.
Health Secretary Neil Gray launched the Scottish Health Information Integrity Strategy this week as part of a co-ordinated national effort to help people tell fact from fiction when it comes to their wellbeing.
The plan aims to strengthen public trust in science and support healthcare workers to counter false or misleading claims that can harm individuals and communities.
“There is a lot of health information at our fingertips, but often it is not in line with the science and evidence produced by international experts. Some of it is misleading, inaccurate, and sometimes just plain false,” said Gray.
“This strategy will help the Scottish Government and our health partners respond to the growing threat from such poor-quality information.”
The strategy, developed on the advice of the Standing Committee on Pandemic Preparedness, seeks to make Scotland’s health system more resilient to misinformation and disinformation.
It focuses on leadership, co-ordination and rapid response – rather than online regulation – and outlines how the NHS and government agencies can equip staff better to help people make informed choices.
The strategy recommends:
- providing dedicated resources
- participating in UK and international networks
- supporting staff to have evidence-based conversations with patients
- supporting embedding media, digital and health literacy into the Curriculum for Excellence
- engaging with community partners and third-sector organisations on public health messaging.
Professor Linda Bauld, who rose to national prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, said the strategy was an important first step.
Bauld, Professor of Public Health at Edinburgh University and the Scottish Government’s Chief Social Policy Adviser, said: “People are seeking information about their health in new ways, and often from platforms which are not accurate.
“This strategy marks the beginning of the Scottish healthcare system’s response – to build and maintain trust and to find the best ways of providing people with reliable information.”
Gray urged the public to use NHS Inform, Scotland’s national health information service, for trustworthy, evidence-based guidance.
“For all of us, understanding our health and options is vital,” he said. “The wrong information can lead us to make the wrong choices – ones that could harm us or our loved ones.”
Misinformation and disinformation have become politically charged topics in recent years. Misinformation is regarded as false or inaccurate information that is shared without the intent to mislead.
Disinformation, by contrast, is defined as false information that is created or spread deliberately to deceive or cause harm. It is thought that nation states with hostile political agendas are often behind the latter.
US researchers uncovered alleged links last year between pro-Scottish independence bot accounts on social media and Iran.
Some pandemic-related campaigns, traced to Russia and China by researchers and Western intelligence agencies, also sought to undermine confidence in European vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna while promoting alternatives like Sputnik V.
Other actors spread conspiracy theories about 5G causing Covid-19 – a falsehood that led to real-world attacks on mobile phone masts.
One incident in Kirkby, Merseyside, saw a man jailed for three years after setting fire to the equipment box of a mast. He had made internet searches linking 5G and Covid19 prior to the attack.
In April 2020, a fire occurred at the base of a phone mast in the Whitfield area of Dundee, which was then celebrated by a local anti5G Facebook group. It was later found the equipment didn’t house 5G technology.
The emergence of “deepfake” and AI-driven influence operations have also led to the creation of synthetic videos and cloned voices to impersonate politicians or fabricate news clips.
In 2024, US voters received automated calls in a deepfake version of President Joe Biden’s voice, urging them not to vote. Authorities confirmed the call was AI-generated to suppress voter turnout, highlighting how synthetic voices can manipulate behaviour.
Closer to home, a viral deepfake video showed John Swinney, the First Minister, apparently saying things in a “news broadcast” clip which he never actually said. According to researchers, the video manipulated his voice from parliamentary livestream footage.
