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Facebook announced it would start removing misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak from all its platforms.
Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook’s Head of Health, said in a blog post late Thursday that their company would “remove content with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by local health authorities and leading global health organizations that could cause harm to people who believe them.”
Jin pointed to misleading information about coronavirus, saying, “This includes claims related to false cures or prevention techniques – like drinking bleach cures the virus – or claims that create confusions about available health resources.”
He said that Instagram would also ban or restrict hashtags and conduct “proactive sweeps” to take out content that spreads misleading information about the coronavirus.
The move appears after the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a global health emergency over fears of fast-spreading Wuhan’s virus, which has killed more than 213 people in China, infecting nearly 9,809.
It’s not the first tech company to take action regarding the outbreak; however, Twitter and Google also take initiatives to tackle misinformation.
Google, for now, has begun displaying information about the epidemic in search results from health authorities, including the WHO. At the same time, its video-sharing platform, YouTube, has been set to promote videos from reliable sources.
Meanwhile, Twitter has also adjusted its search prompt to raise information from “authoritative health sources” to the top of the page when visitors conduct searchers about the coronavirus outbreak.
Facebook has gotten into hot water regarding how it acts with health-related information. The social media giant was condemned for failing to exclude anti-vaccination posts last year, instead opting to lower such content in the rankings of users’ feeds.
In September, the tech platform announced a partnership with the WHO. The primary intention behind the association was to steer people toward accurate vaccination details from the United Nations health agency.
Facebook’s latest initiative on countering misinformation comes amid intense regulatory scrutiny faced by the company, an issue that weighed heavily on its late share price. The American tech company lost around $50 billion in market value this week after suffering a rise in expenses on upholding privacy and security updates.
The company revealed on Thursday that it would continue cooperating with independent fact-checkers to minimize the spread of any false claim about coronavirus. Instead, it will show credible information on its platform.
Facebook officials signalled that the company would also run educational pop-ups with “credible information” and share data with researchers to help them conclude a near-right forecast of the virus’s spread.
“Not all of these steps are entirely in place. It will take some time to roll them out across our platforms and improve our enforcement methods,” Jin said, adding, “We will offer updates on further steps we’re taking in coordination with worldwide and regional partners as the situation continues to evolve.”