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Apps Putting Limitations on Sharing Fake Coronavirus Related Claims
Could a limit on forwarding messages slow coronavirus fake news
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
The entire world is fighting together against Coronavirus. Social media platforms are no other. Social media apps are tackling fake claims related to Coronavirus. Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter are the firms working hard to deliver the best links of precise Coronavirus information on their sites. The outbreak of Coronavirus has slow down the world economy. In such a health crisis, people are selling overpriced masks and getting punished by the government. Internet has more number of posts containing misinformation about the virus spread and false claims related to cure for the Coronavirus. Many greedy people are trying their best to take advantage of the situation.
To stop greedy people from earning benefits from such crises, social media apps are removing false claims.
So far, Coronavirus cases have appeared in 22 countries and around 15000 deaths have been reported across the world. WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency? Social media networks are now banning hateful or defamatory posts on their platforms.
Fake news on social media has provoked mob violence in several countries and has spread unwanted fears among the public in an earlier time.
Social media platforms and apps are now under pressure to prevent panic as authorities try to address the outbreak. How they are doing it is explained in this article.
Facebook has announced by saying it will limit the post sharing of false claims about Coronavirus by deleting them from the platform. As per Facebook, the team of experts is doing its job to dismiss the claims that are designed to interfere with the treatment. It includes false cures too.
There was a post in which users were asked to keep their throat moist and avoid having spicy food if they want to protect themselves against Coronavirus. That post had 16000 shares and more than 400 comments.
Facebook-owned Instagram is also blocking such hashtags related to the Coronavirus. WhatsApp messaging app has had a tough time dealing with false news earlier due to privacy issues. In 2019, the WhatsApp messenger app had taken measures to prevent users from sending forwarded messages to up to five people or groups.
As per the reports, there are over 15 million tweets related to Coronavirus happened in the past four weeks.
Twitter recently launched a prompt that users can see when they search tweets about Coronavirus. The prompt encourages them to take the help of official channels like WHO or centers for disease control to get correct information about the Coronavirus.
YouTube
Google owns YouTube, a video streaming app and a website. YouTube is investing efforts to bring the most accurate and approved information for its viewers in searches. YouTube has its policy for videos unloaders in which it strongly opposes the content having hate speech, harassment, or misleading messages that promote any scam or violence. For Coronavirus searches, there were previews of virtual news stories along with a warning that creating stories can evolve rapidly.
TikTok
TikTok is another video sharing app platform that has shared a link to navigate the user to the main official website of WHO. TikTok even issued a reminder for users to report harmful or inappropriate content.
It also shares a link to COVID-19 where users can get all the necessary information related to Coronavirus.
TikTok has been criticized for letting nurses and doctors sharing videos giving medical advice on other health issues.
The new guidelines of Tiktok prohibit posting harmful information on the platform.
Reddit is a community-based platform where several discussions are made in different groups. Reddit users can vote comments and links shared by other community members. They can either vote up or down the shared comments. As per the Reddit officials, the platform is designed in a way to protect users from fake claims or wrong information.
Recently, Reddit officials have shared a banner at the top of the Reddit home page that has a thread link. In the thread, there are questions related to Coronavirus. It has authoritative resources and information for people who are seeking details about the outbreak.
LinkedIn is a social media platform and application that is made to bring professionals across the world and allow them to share a single platform to establish new networks. It has nearly 660+ million end users in more than two hundred countries and regions throughout the globe.
LinkedIn is also doing its share to fight against Coronavirus. When a user types Coronavirus or COVID- 19 in the search tab, LinkedIn shares an address that includes official updates and sources about Coronavirus. The link has all the officially approved stories shared by authorities across the world, such as MTI, WHO, CDC, LinkedIn Editors Asia, UNICEF, etc.
Apart from these mobile apps development and social media platforms, companies like Apple, Airtel, Microsoft and many more are working hard to fight against the outbreak.
Verily, the sister company of Google has launched a website Monday to screen people living in California’s Santa Clara and San Mateo counties who suspect COVID-19 symptoms and telling them the correct testing sites.
Microsoft released an online tracker for the outbreak at Bing.com/covid on Monday. The site shows a live map highlighting the cases across the world. The company is helping millions of people stay in touch while combating false and fake news about Coronavirus.