Dubai: The top six rumours that Dubai Municipality’s call centre handled for verification were all health-related, and all were false, a Dubai Municipality official confirmed.
Six months back, Dubai Municipality launched an initiative called ‘Authentic News’, urging the public to communicate with its call centre for clarifications on any kind of social media rumours, assuring them that it would provide the correct information and clear misconceptions within eight hours.
Mohammad Ahmad Al Looz, Head of the Complaints and Suggestions Section and Acting Director of the Contact Centre, told Gulf News that in the last three months, the most number of calls they received following the launch of the initiative were concerning products posing health risks or regarding unhygienic standards in some restaurants.
The rumours [especially about certain health products], circulating on social media, were causing panic among consumers.
“Most of the rumours are about shampoos being harmful for the hair, beauty products causing skin reactions, food products being carcinogenic or contaminated and restaurants being unhygienic. Such news is quickly exaggerated and shared on social media and, most of the time, it turns out to be false,” said Al Looz.
“Every Ramadan, the same rumour about Tang and Vimto being harmful to people’s health does the rounds. This year, it came back in June and we quickly took on social networks to inform the public that it’s not true,” he said.
On July 9, another rumour began circulating about a certain brand of perfume whose scent, if inhaled, could cause death. “In the same month, people raised their concern about [a particular brand of] chicken stock cubes used in soups being harmful to health.”
Another rumour that went viral on social media was that rose water contains a virus.
The tendency of social media to warp perceptions came under the spotlight again when a video went viral of a mouse eating leftover food in a restaurant and the rumour went that this had occurred in a mall in Dubai.
“The video was uploaded and people said it was in one of the restaurants in a mall in Dubai, which was not true. In fact, it was in another country in the GCC,” Al Looz clarified.
Speaking about the process of verifying news and providing correct information to the public, Al Looz said that if the questions and inquiries received on 800900 cannot be answered immediately, they are forwarded to the relevant department to handle and confirm and then the correct information is sent back to the call agents who then contact the people who inquired about it.
Al Looz said the municipality has 34 departments, each specialised in a specific field. The food inspection department and the public health and safety department at the municipality have been the most involved in the past three months in helping clarify misleading information for the public.
How does the process work?
“People’s numbers and personal details are taken down and are kept confidential,” said Al Looz. “We ensure they are contacted within the next eight hours. The call centre is available 24 hours to the public and addresses all types of inquiries, complaints and reports related to the municipality.”
The call centre receives approximately 1,300 calls a day, he said.
Previously, the municipality used the BlackBerry Messenger app to broadcast correct information, but now they use their accounts on Instagram and Twitter to reach the community faster.
“[Dubai Municipality’s] Authentic News initiative has encouraged many people to report false news and seek clarification. It has helped dispel rumours,” he said.
