s global Covid-19 death and infection numbers keep soaring, global social media company Facebook has devised a raft of measures to protect its more than three billion users against misinformation through its three platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The company has launched a new policy prohibiting ads for products that refer to the coronavirus disease in ways intended to create panic or imply that their products guarantee a cure or prevent people from contracting it.
“This includes claims related to false cures or prevention methods, like drinking bleach or claims that create confusion about health resources that are available. We are also temporarily banning ads and commerce listings that sell medical face masks,” a statement says.
Facebook’s head of public policy for East and Horn of Africa Mercy Ndegwa says the company is also partnering with governments, technology firms and civil society to respond to the immense challenges presented at this time.
“We encourage users to check the facts via official public health agencies before sharing messages that have been forwarded to them and to engage directly with trusted and official sources for important information,” she says.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
On WhatsApp, which is the leading social media platform in Kenya, the number of times highly forwarded chats can be forwarded again has been reduced to limit the spread of harmful misinformation around the coronavirus.
“Once a message is labelled “highly forwarded” with the double arrow icon, it will only be possible to forward that message to one WhatsApp chat at a time as opposed to five as previously,” reads the statement.
With billions of people in isolation due to Covid-19, more than ever, people all over the world are relying on social media to communicate with their extended families, doctors, teachers and friends during this crisis.
However, there has been a significant increase in the number of unverified information being forwarded on WhatsApp, which has contributed to the spread of misinformation.
Last October, WhatsApp also introduced new controls for users over who can add them to a group.
Earlier in 2018, WhatsApp began labelling messages that had been forwarded with a single arrow icon and later in the year made the first change to its “forward limits”, by dropping the forward limit for all messages from 20 to just five. “This one change for the forward limit alone resulted in a 25 per cent decrease in messages that were being forwarded on the service – which roughly translated as one billion fewer messages being forwarded every day,” adds the statement.
The reduction to just one forward from five is also expected to tame the spread of fake news, and cyber-attack attempts now that social media platforms are recording more traffic as people keep working from home.
On Instagram, the company has moved World Health Organization and other authoritative sources to the top of Search, so people can easily find the most accurate information.
Using artificial intelligence, Facebook is erasing all false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organisations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them.