From Fear to Fluency: Why Our Multicultural Communities Deserve Better Digital Health Education

By Tina La, Policy and Program Officer

The conversation around technology and health misinformation often all sounds the same. 

The internet is dangerous. Algorithms are manipulative. AI cannot be trusted! 

While these concerns have merit, there is a problem with stopping there. Warning people about a world they already live in without equipping them to navigate it is not the protection that we often think it is. 

For our multicultural communities, the stakes are especially high. Communities are increasingly reliant on digital platforms to access health services, find medical information, and make decisions that directly affect their wellbeing. 

AI-powered tools are woven into these everyday health experiences, from symptom checkers and telehealth platforms to medication guides and mental health apps. This is where the first mistake often occurs, where many think that AI is still “emerging” in healthcare. Whether one agrees with this fast-paced integration into our health systems, the reality is it has already arrived and is not going anywhere. 

To support true digital health literacy within our multicultural communities, the question should not be how do we keep our communities safe from the internet? 

The real question is how do we prepare them to move through it with confidence? 

Digital health literacy is not simply knowing how to book a GP appointment online. It is understanding how health information is created, who creates it, and why. It is recognising when a health headline is designed to provoke fear rather than inform. It is knowing that an AI-generated article or images can look indistinguishable from a credible medical source and having the tools to pause and interrogate where it came from. 

When we frame online health spaces purely through the lens of danger, we risk deepening the very vulnerability we are trying to address. Communities who feel overwhelmed or distrustful are more susceptible to health misinformation. Vaccine hesitancy, delayed diagnoses, or ignoring real medical advice are often fuelled by fears that do not have a reliable evidence-base. Fear without knowledge is where misinformation takes root, and in health, this can cost lives.  

Digital health literacy cannot be considered a luxury. For our multicultural population, this means community-based digital health literacy programs delivered in-language and in-culture. It looks like trusted community leaders, GPs, and health organisations being resourced to have these conversations. Most importantly, it starts with recognising that the barriers communities face when accessing health information online are rarely ever about the technology itself, but almost always about trust and awareness. 

The digital world is imperfect, but it is also full of opportunity to reach a new standard of equitable care, connect communities, and provide real value to our existing health systems.  

Our communities deserve to access all of it, not just the parts that feel familiar or safe. 

Tina La is the Collaborative’s Policy and Program Officer. She brings an evidence-based analytical approach and a commitment to improving wellbeing and equity for diverse and underrepresented groups through leveraging her research-informed experience alongside community-led collaboration.