Facebook to warn users who interacted with misleading posts about coronavirus

Such users will be directed to a "myth busters" page on WHO website

Facebook said on Thursday it will soon start showing notifications to users on its platform who interacted with posts containing misleading information about the novel coronavirus.

Under the new policy, users who liked, reacted, shared or commented on such disingenuous posts before they were removed by the moderators will see an alert in their news feed. Those users will also be directed to a "myth busters" page on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The aggressive move from the social media giant coincides with the publishing of a new report by activist group Avaaz, which draws attention to the social network's shortcomings in countering the misinformation about coronavirus pandemic.

Avaaz researchers claim that millions of Facebook users continue to see coronavirus misinformation without any warning on the platform.

The researchers examined a sample of over 100 pieces of coronavirus misinformation on six versions of Facebook website, including Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and French. They professed themselves surprised to find that the platform sometimes takes up to 22 days to issue warning labels for coronavirus misinformation.

The study reported several examples of misinformation spreading on the platform even when third-party fact checks had been completed. The researchers also noticed a large number of dangerous falsehoods that received hundreds of thousands of views, including claims like "coronavirus is destroyed by chlorine dioxide" and "black people are resistant to coronavirus".

Facebook said that it put over 40 million warning labels in March over posts, articles or videos about Covid-19 that were found to be misleading or false by fact-checking organisations.

The social media giant claimed that putting such warming labels helped to stop 95 per cent of users from clicking on those misleading posts.

Facebook also plans to start promoting stories that debunk coronavirus misinformation.

"To make it easier for people to find accurate information about COVID-19, we recently added a new section to our Covid-19 Information Center called Get the Facts," Facebook said.

"It includes fact-checked articles from our partners that debunk misinformation about the coronavirus. The fact-check articles are selected by our News curation team and updated every week. This is now available in the US. We will soon add it to Facebook News in the US as well."

"As this pandemic evolves, we'll continue focusing on the most effective ways to keep misinformation and dangerous hoaxes about Covid-19 off our apps and ensure people have credible information from health experts to stay safe and informed," it added.