Few newspapers can be as conscious as we in this space are about the damage often done by people who use social media, either out of ignorance or sheer malice and spite to spread misinformation.

We are referring specifically to the long campaign of lies and deception about access to the iconic Blue Lagoon in Portland, which were recently exposed by a video posted on social media showing locals enjoying the world-famous attraction — and about which we wrote in our Monday edition titled ‘Absolutely not true! Social media video upends false claims about Blue Lagoon access’.

The accompanying narration suggests that the video is the work of an individual sympathetic to arguments raised by a beach access advocate who went to the attraction to “check out the access”, and who “met with a Maroon leader who’s been dealing with beach access in the Portland area”.

“I came here today because I was told that there is no access to Blue Lagoon and, as you can see, there is full access,” the man says while walking the property and showing Jamaicans, some in swimwear.

He notes that there is a problem with parking on the road leading to the attraction, saying: “There is a level of control that doesn’t add up [as] there’s basically no formalised use of the area.”

We find it difficult to fathom what any Jamaican expects to gain by bad-mouthing the Blue Lagoon which constitutes such an invaluable part of our tourism product, and we therefore commend the creators of the video for debunking the information being falsely disseminated.

Checks with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT), which manages the attraction, have confirmed that no charges have been imposed for access to the lagoon, and that any such could be the work of touts operating without legal authority.

In response to the lies being spread, the State-run JNHT was forced to dismiss claims on social media that the public will need to pay to access Blue Lagoon.

The JNHT firmly maintained that Blue Lagoon is available to the public free of charge and pointed out that there had been renovations at the facility, including rehabilitation of restrooms, landscaping, and installation of signs and storyboards. The trust also noted that some vending, including craft vending, is allowed on the shore.

Reader Mark Chue, who commented on the issue in our story yesterday, hit the nail on the head: “Social media has created a very dangerous version of fake news and from it the fraudulent and often-repeated claim that Jamaicans have no access to beaches.

“This is a blatant, bold-face lie told by those seeking to personally gain something by stirring hatred and division for people who have beach properties. There is no shortage of beaches that we can go any time. The covetous nature of some is based on the argument that we can’t access the beaches that others have spent money to nourish, reclaim, modernise, and maintain.

“The north and south coasts are filled with beach options that we are free to go, some nicer than some but still accessible to all.”

Deliberately misinforming the world about our national assets can only harm those who derive a living from them, and our country which needs all the support it can get at this time. We urge those who derive satisfaction from so doing to desist immediately.