http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/fighting-ebola-hard-congo-fake-news-makes-it-harder

A member of UNICEF’s Ebola outreach team addresses the public in Beni, a city in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is providing a natural experiment in fighting fake news. Occurring in a conflict zone, amid a controversial presidential election, the epidemic has proved to be fertile ground for conspiracy theories and political manipulation, which can hamper efforts to treat patients and fight the virus’s spread. Public health workers have mounted an unprecedented effort to counter misinformation, saying the success or failure of the Ebola response may pivot on who controls the narrative.