To avoid the sharing of misinformation and out of date articles related to Covid-19, Facebook will now show a warning message.
In a latest effort to help battle with the possible harmful COVID-19 misinformation, Facebook added a new notification screen that provides more context regarding an article or any other associated link, like when was the first time information shared on the internet and who was the source.
The main goal of Facebook is to “help people understand the quality and source of the content before they share it” and to direct “people to our COVID-19 Information Center to ensure people have access to credible information about COVID-19 from global health authorities.”
”It builds on the platform’s existing recency notifications, which it launched in June to help cut down on the spread of older links that routinely resurface in ways that can misrepresent current events”.
Facebook remains active against COVID-19 conspiracy and misinformation
The new warning screen before sharing COVID-19 articles is part of the actions Facebook has been taking since March to try to stop the Facebook platform from becoming a conduit for coronavirus misconceptions and other forms of propaganda.
In the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook started using AI to fight against COVID-19 misinformation and hateful memes, it initiated placing vetted COVID-19 related information from reliable health and medical specialists at top of the newsfeed.
In May, the Plandemic hoax video went viral, which caused social media giant Facebook more damaged and its efforts towards controlling the false propaganda. Moreover, in last month another video went viral from Breitbart News which is a trusted Facebook News partner that encompasses fabricated information about coronavirus treatments and methods to fight against its spread. Facebook issues a statement by saying they will investigate the matter regarding why the video remained live for so long.
While talking about the new notification screen to prevent the spread of false information and out of date content Facebook exempted certain data sources to ensure trustworthy and supportive links don’t get caught in the newly added feature.
“Along those lines, we want to ensure we don’t slow the spread of information from credible health authorities, so content posted by government health authorities and recognized global health organizations, like the World Health Organization, will not have this notification,” the company says.
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