Facebook will guide users who “like” coronavirus hoaxes to better sources

Facebook will guide users who “like” coronavirus hoaxes to better sources

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook just announced another step in trying to set the record straight about misleading information about the novel coronavirus on its platform. In the coming weeks, the company will start directing people who have previously “liked,” reacted, or commented on “harmful misinformation” about Covid-19 to information from more authoritative sources, such as a myth-busters website by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This represents one of the first times Facebook will warn a specific set of users who have interacted in the past with false information, Vox says.

“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,” wrote Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, in a company blog post released on Thursday. The notifications will apply only to Facebook and not its other platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, social media users have been posting popular and dangerous hoaxes about the virus, including false cures and myths about the origins of the outbreak. In response, companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have been stepping up their measures to flag and sometimes delete this type of content. In March alone, Facebook says it labeled 40 million posts as “false” on its network, relying on its team of independent third-party fact-checkers. Still, plenty of bad information that fact-checkers don’t catch regularly slips through the cracks — or is caught only after tens of thousands of users have already seen the posts in question.

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