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Insights gained from our experience working in Indonesia may benefit other countries battling similar challenges beyond the covid-19 pandemic. Firstly, we learnt about the importance of building a community’s skills to interpret online information. Our work helped to promote individual and community based digital literacy, and we used social inoculation or “pre-bunking” skills to help people navigate online spaces more safely. Social inoculation involves exposing people to a piece of misinformation, with warnings and explanations of how it is misleading; this helps people recognise similar misleading tactics in the future. MAFINDO used peer-to-peer approaches, such as recruiting older community members to help their peers check information. We also learnt it was important to equip community leaders and influencers with culturally appropriate content and frame messages in ways that help answer common questions and concerns in an accessible way. Secondly, health workers need to be empowered to counter misinformation. In Indonesia, medical associations are building training programmes and tools to help health workers to tackle vaccine misinformation in-person and online. Health workers are among the most trusted sources of health information and are often welcomed into digital spaces where governments and other organisations are not, which makes them ideal trusted messengers where misinformation is rife.

ools to help health workers to tackle vaccine misinformation in-person and online. Health workers are among the most trusted sources of health information and are often welcomed into digital spaces where governments and other organisations are not, which makes them ideal trusted messengers where misinformation is rife. Thirdly, we found out how important it was to make countering misinformation communal and fun. Some research suggests that misinformation that triggers negative emotions can spread and fuel vaccine hesitancy to a greater degree than misinformation triggering other emotional responses.9 We broke through this “doom loop” by debunking scary sounding misinformation with positive, accurate information, which we found to be effective in helping build people’s trust in accurate information. In fact, some of the approaches to vaccine misinformation that received widest engagement in Indonesia were humorous, including grassroots level memes or organised campaigns to hire comedians who promoted vaccine facts. We also offered game-based community level training that kept everyone of all ages engaged. Ultimately, our experience suggests that it takes a sustained and whole-of-society effort to make the internet a healthier place for all and to build an information ecosystem that is resilient to future health misinformation challenges. By equipping both community members and health professionals with tools and skills to address health misinformation both online and offline, we make entire communities stronger.