Facebook steps up battle against coronavirus misinformation

Facebook is stepping up its efforts to combat misinformation being spread on its platform about the coronavirus pandemic, pushing users towards more reliable sources of information.

The social network said it would begin displaying messages to people who have commented, liked or otherwise interacted with misinformation about the Covid-19 outbreak that Facebook had deemed harmful and removed from its platform.

During March, about 40 million posts were tagged with a warning related to Covid-19, and hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation that could have led to physical harm – such as advice that drinking bleach can cure the virus and spreading theories that physical distancing is of little impact in preventing the spread of coronavirus – have been removed, Facebook said.

"For other misinformation, once it is rated false by fact-checkers, we reduce its distribution, apply warning labels with more context and find duplicates," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

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“Through this crisis, one of my top priorities is making sure that you see accurate and authoritative information across all of our apps.”

Resources

Facebook's Guy Rosen said more than 2 billion people had been directed to resources from the World Health Organisation and other health authorities, through Facebook's Covid-19 Information Centre and pop-up prompts on Facebook and Instagram. Some 350 million people had clicked through to those resoures.

“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,” Mr Rosen said. “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.”

In the Republic, users are directed to the HSE website. According to Facebook, the HSE has reported a significant uplift in Facebook- and Instagram-generated traffic to its information pages, with prompts in the newsfeed leading to 204,000 visitors to the HSE website.

“Stopping the spread of misinformation and harmful content about Covid-19 on our apps is also critically important,” Mr Rosen said. Facebook has added eight new partners to its fact-checking service and expanded coverage to more countries. It is also supporting fact-checking organisations through a $1 million grant programme in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network..

Facebook has also added a new fact-checked section to its Covid-19 Information Centre in the US that is designed to debunk coronavirus myths.