India, July 13 -- Detecting fakes -- or altered or illegitimate representations of the truth -- is more important than ever during this period of global and civil unrest that we find ourselves in. Counterfeiters have leveraged consumer fear and uncertainty created by coronavirus (COVID-19) to flood the market with fakes, misinformation and counterfeits, taking advantage of demand and panic buying for essential goods and services.

As one example, social media bot accounts are causing life-threatening coronavirus misinformation to spread across the internet. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the Oxford Internet Institute recently released the results of a study that reviewed 225 pieces of COVID-19 misinformation rated f...