BIOPOLITICS AND NEOLIBERAL GOVERNANCE IN THE COVID-19 INFODEMIC: THE EPISTEMIC OF AN EPIDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019 has led to a global crisis with significant loss of lives. However, in addition to this health crisis, it has also given rise to a parallel crisis - an infodemic reminiscent of the political deception during the post-truth era in 2016. The primary aim of this study is to discuss the epistemic foundations of fake news spread during the COVID-19 pandemic through the concepts of biopolitics and neoliberal governance by Michel Foucault, and to reveal the impact of this fake news on the responsibilities of governments and companies related to the pandemic. Drawing inspiration from Foucault's concept of episteme, the study aims to understand how misinformation related to the pandemic shaped within a conceptual framework rooted in neoliberal governance. Furthermore, specific to this study, eight categories such as competition, inequality, vaccine nationalism, individualization, society's alignment with market logic, the embedding of science with capital, the dominance of popular culture, surveillance have been formulated to identify the epistemic codes of fake news related to the pandemic. This framework will be used to comprehend the socio-cultural impacts of the infodemic during the pandemic and shed light on the potential corrosive effects of this misinformation on the responsibilities of governments and companies.