Commenting on misinformation campaigns, SMU Associate Professor of Computer Science Wei Gao said that misinformation campaigns usually emerge when there is a vacuum of trusted information and intense public demand for updates. Assoc Prof Wei added that in a crisis, people are looking for immediate explanations, and the first dramatic story often travels before the first verified one. He said that revealing the truth is slower as verification takes time, evidence, trusted sources and coordination. He added that a false claim only needs to be interesting enough to share.