Coronavirus outbreak is not the only thing that is exposing people to danger. Misinformation and propaganda outbreak —especially at a crucial time like this is equally destructive, if not more.
Having burnt its finger in the past, especially during US general elections, Facebook is no stranger to this. In the recent past, there have been several hoaxes attempting to link the coronavirus with Chinese 5G networks, dangerous fake medicines to treat COVID-19 and many more. Worse still, many of these articles and videos garner millions of views and thousands of unsuspecting users fall victim to the misinformation.
To battle the misinformation, the company is considering all that it can to minimise fake news and misinformation in its network.
Facebook recently said it would invite people who had shared a hoax to visit a page created by the WHO debunking popular COVID-19 myths.
Facebook’s vice president of integrity Guy Rosen in a blog post wrote, “We’re going to start showing messages in News Feed to people who have liked, reacted or commented on harmful misinformation about COVID-19 that we have since removed.”
“These messages will connect people to COVID-19 myths debunked by the WHO including ones we’ve removed from our platform for leading to imminent physical harm. We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook. People will start seeing these messages in the coming weeks,” he added.
How far the social media giant succeeds in its mission, however, is yet to be seen.
