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Facebook has spent the last four years catching a massive amount of flak for their role in the proliferation of fake news. After the 2016 presidential election, the social network was at the center of investigations involving voter manipulation. Eager to dispel their image as a fake news repository, Facebook is moving fast to clear up COVID misinformation.
The social media site is now planning to inform users if they’ve “liked” fake news related to the novel coronavirus. As such, the company is mobilizing considerable resources in identifying fake news and informing users when they do so. After all, people don’t need to be fed even more misinformation through their cellphones.
Facebook has been slow to address fake news on their platform in the past. Normally, this is because the fake news in question is quite profitable for Facebook, driving up engagement by stirring up divisive drama. However, COVID-19 presents a unique new challenge for the social media site.
In particular, fake news about the coronavirus could literally lead to deaths. Articles urging people to act as though there is no virus pose a public health risk. This could blow back on Facebook in a major way. If there platform was found to be a public health threat, they could be demonetized temporarily, or even permanently, to preserve public health.
COVID-19 has underscored Facebook’s responsibilities in fighting misinformation. The platform reaches millions of people, and misinformation from the social network has been incredibly harmful in the past. The company confirmed they are working with more fact-checkers and health experts than ever. Hopefully it’s enough to help prevent the spread of misinformation.
Facebook announced their intention to combat fake news about the virus in a blog post. “These messages will connect people to COVID-19 myths debunked by the World Health Organization including ones we’ve removed from our platform for leading to imminent physical harm,” Facebook’s Guy Rosen stated. Rosen, ironically, is the platform’s “vice president of integrity”.
Facebook claims to have removed hundreds of thousands of articles of misinformation from their site since January 2020. Misinformation regarding the virus’s origins, its lethality, who is most at risk and more has cropped up since the virus was first identified.
“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,” Rosen continued in the blog post.
