An alarming news story grabbed the attention of delegates at a risk conference.

Caribbean leaders were braced for international fallout after a Venezuelan cartel boat was bombed off the coast, prompting President Nicolás Maduro to threaten reprisals against the United States and forge new alliances with Russia, China and North Korea.

Social media exploded, dubbing the stand-off “the beginning of World War Three”, as the story racked up a staggering one billion hits online.

But none of it was true.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s fake news. I just made it up sitting right there,” declared Laleta Davis-Mattis, lecturer and counsel at the University of the West Indies, as she opened her presentation during Wednesday’s panel on combating misinformation at the Second Wider Caribbean Regional Risk Conference in Barbados.

Small-island states in the Caribbean region are facing a “clear and present danger” from the rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation, panellists warned.

Many countries in the region rely on tourism and remittances and “don’t have a very big productive sector, and are therefore vulnerable. This spells a clear and present danger to us, to our development, to our economies,” said Al Edwards, chief executive of Our Today, the Jamaican media company. “The very essence of us as a society in the Caribbean is under threat.”

Although Bermuda enjoys one of the highest GDPs in the region, in the last few years, the island has not been immune to misinformation campaigns. In April 2025, deepfake posts and artificial intelligence-generated videos misusing The Royal Gazette's branding aimed to mislead. Meanwhile, both the Bermuda Health Council and the Bermuda Monetary Authority had to combat impersonations — through logo misuse and name misrepresentation, respectively — designed to confuse the public.

Panellists pointed to real-world consequences already unfolding from this type of deception, with Mr Edwards pointing out how misinformation affected the Jamaican general election that was taking place as he spoke.

“One situation whereby an eminent lawyer, a member of the PNP [People’s National Party], his voice was used by the government, and it was very much a case of misinformation. Right then it turned into disinformation. And there’s a lawsuit saying that the words that came out of his mouth were used out of context,” Mr Edwards recounted.

He also described a fake video targeting a prominent business leader, Adam Stewart, who runs the Sandals (Resorts) company. “There was a fake video where he purportedly says he started a company called Stewart Capital, and he was asking Jamaicans to make contributions. Totally fake.”

The stakes for the Caribbean are high. “Can you imagine the damage that causes, particularly for small-island states?” said Mr Edwards, referencing the deepfake video. “It sullies the reputation of a great Caribbean company. It sullies the reputation of people who work in those institutions. You’re left to clean up the mess, and no one really cares.”

Panellists agreed that the region’s small size, low digital literacy, and limited resources make it especially vulnerable, calling for urgent, coordinated action. In fact, the World Economic Forum's2025 Global Risks Report identified misinformation as the most pressing global risk, yet world leaders seem unwilling to act.

In response, the region is taking steps to fight back, said Craig Ramlal, executive director of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Centre at UWI.

“The Caricom [Caribbean Telecommunications Union] has set up an AI task force that consists of these regulators, appointees from governments, private organisations like IBM, [conglomerate] GraceKennedy and so on,” he said. “And the idea, part of what we are looking at is misinformation, disinformation, data infrastructure and so on, right? So there is some light. There is something coming out of that. I’m the chair of that taskforce.”

Ms Davis-Mattis highlighted the region’s digital literacy gap: “We all rely on social media for internet access to a large extent.” She added: “We have to start in our schools. We have to start making digital literacy and fact checking a part of the school curriculum. It cannot happen any other way, because … we need to teach [students] how to interface in a world that has so many stressors.”