Facebook’s latest attempt to help combat the spread of potentially harmful misinformation from COVID-19 includes a new notification screen that will provide more context about an article than any other reference, such as when it was first shared and its source.
The goal, says Facebook, is to “help people understand the review and source of content before sharing it” and to “direct people to our COVID-19 Information Center to ensure that people have access to credible information about COVID-19 from global health authorities. ”It builds on the platform’s existing redesign notifications, which it launched in June to help cut back on the proliferation of older links that routinely reappear in ways that are current can misrepresent events.
This new announcement screen is part of an ongoing series of measures that Facebook has taken since March to try to prevent its platform from becoming a channel for dangerous coronavirus-related collusion theories and other forms of misinformation. At the start of the pandemic, the company began inserting coronavirus information from trusted health and medical authorities at the top of the News Feed, as well as the above-mentioned COVID-19 information button.
However, in the months since, Facebook has had to take more active measures to combat the rapid spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, including banning anti-masking groups and posting anti-misinformation messages in the News Feeds of users who may be engaging in fake coronavirus stories. In May, the “Plandemic” hoax video went viral, causing more headaches for Facebook’s moderation efforts. Just last month, another video from Breitbart News, a trusted partner of Facebook News, with false information about coronavirus cures and measures to combat its spread, went viral again. Facebook later said it would investigate why the video had remained live for so long.
As part of this new notification designed to help prevent the spread of old, outdated and simply false information, Facebook says it is releasing certain information resources to ensure that trusted and useful links do not fall on the screen. “Along these lines, we want to ensure that we do not delay the dissemination of information by credible health authorities, so content posted by government health authorities and recognized global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization, will not have this notice,” the company said.
