Democratization

In order to curb the spread of the novel Corona virus, Jordan has enforced one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. While these measures seem tough, they might avert the country from the high fatalities that many other states are facing.

A virus riding on another virus. That is how the ‘infodemic’ is raging in online spaces around the outbreak of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19, which has been on just about everyone’s radar since late January 2020. As grave as the quest to manage the respiratory disease and cure those ill with it is not only the challenge of using facts versus fear - but how to create and keep avenues of information that withstand the unrelenting drip of skewed, confused, partially true to totally false information, to racist and prejudiced views, or a cocktail of these.

Computers are often thought of as neutral technology. However, it becomes alarmingly clear that machines learn from training data made up of outdated social norms, values and attitudes towards race and gender. This can have insidious consequences.