My friend just posted something about how she’s so thankful Coronavirus can’t harm her children.
Actually Coronavirus CAN harm her children -- if her 6 month old baby contracts Coronavirus, she could become extremely ill. Now my friend’s mommy friends have seen this post, they trust her, and are probably sharing this tidbit with their friends.
There’s so much information about this virus, and it’s changing rapidly. It’s become hard to tell what is true and what is false. But one way to prevent the spread of false information, is for social media companies to allow for easy spotting and flagging of COVID-19 disinformation.
They already work with independent fact-checkers -- they could easily expand their work to help tackle the world’s #1 crisis.
Tell social media companies: create an easy way to spot and flag COVID-19 disinformation
Coronavirus is the only thing people and governments everywhere are thinking about. And with most of us at home now, we’re relying on social media more than ever.
So tackling the spread of disinformation about COVID-19 should be the top priority for these tech giants.
Many of us heard about the man who died taking fish tank chemicals after a watching Trump talk about it. But there are other stories that are equally harmful -- from young people being immune to COVID-19, to drinking vodka to kill the virus.
There’s a serious disinformation crisis happening right now and social media companies can and should do way more to help protect people during this scary and uncertain time.
More information
Buzzfeed News. 24 March 2020.
National Observer. 24 March 2020.