Facebook Is Notifying Users Who Have Shared Coronavirus Misinformation. Could It Do the Same for Politics?

Hoping to stem the torrent of false cures and conspiracy theories about COVID-19, Facebook announced Thursday it would begin informing users globally who have liked, commented on, or shared “harmful” misinformation about the coronavirus, pointing them instead in the direction of a reliable source. Facebook hopes the move will drastically reduce the spread of false information about the coronavirus online, a growing crisis that the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as an “infodemic.” “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,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s Vice President for Integrity, in a blog post published early Thursday. The new policy only applies to false claims related to the coronavirus, but campaigners say the announcement could lay the groundwork for a breakthrough in the battle against political disinformation online. “Facebook applying this to the pandemic is a good first step but this should also be applied to political disinformation too, particularly with the 2020 U.S. election approaching” says Fadi Quran, a campaign director at Avaaz, a global advocacy group that has lobbied Facebook to “correct the record” on false information since 2018. (In the language of online security, “disinformation” means the coordinated, purposeful spread of ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Londontime Source Type: news