Mekong Region (Strengthening Digital Media Literacy in the Mekong Region)

COVID-19 disinformation has threatened the health and safety of individuals across Southeast Asia, fueling existing social tensions and leading to a denial of science, elevated levels of distrust, hate speech and physical violence. IFES supports civil society organizations to counter COVID-19 disinformation and hate speech and builds the media literacy capacity of marginalized groups who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Since 2020, IFES has developed programs that strengthen regional capacity to counter disinformation, misinformation and hate speech around COVID-19.

Specifically, IFES is supporting women; Indigenous Persons; older persons; persons with disabilities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons to counter COVID-19 disinformation. IFES’ approach to media literacy education prioritizes the needs and rights of marginalized communities who have been targets of online disinformation and need better access to factual information.