... escaping a literal space, "/\ /", makes no sense.

It's pointless in this case, but it does no harm.

%info = split (/(":\ )/, $info);

However, putting the split pattern into a capture group  /(":\ )/ causes the separator sub-strings to be returned along with the stuff one might possibly want, resulting, in this case, in a bunch of extraneous (Update: and confounding)  '": ' thingies in the output list.