Now with the coronavirus spreading around the world, many are no doubt eager to share whatever news that they might find about the virus, such as its spread, potential cures, and so on. However, sometimes this information can be false or misleading, and sharing them will only spread this misinformation and cause undue panic or lead to people making wrong decisions.
Social media is one place that you can easily find and spread such misinformation, and on Facebook’s end, the company has recently introduced a new feature that could help curb this practice. The platform will now begin to alert users if they have interacted with posts on Facebook that are found to be false.
This means that if you’ve ever liked or reacted or shared a coronavirus post on Facebook that has been deemed to be wrong or false, Facebook will now alert you to it. They will also provide links to websites like the WHO that have debunked said false information. This means that unless the user is purposely sharing misinformation, by providing them with accurate information, it will help them change their minds or maybe retract their earlier posts and share the correct information instead.
We imagine that this feature can be applied not just to coronavirus information, but other fake news posts in the future as well.
Filed in . Read more about Coronavirus, Covid-19 and Facebook. Source: engadget