As misleading information related to the coronavirus is still gaining significant traction across social media platforms including possible cures, and contradicting report on mask-wearing, etc., Facebook has introduced another tool to slow the spread of misleading information related to COVID-19. Now, a new pop-up appears when users share posts about the coronavirus, pointing users to official resources as well as providing extra context about those posts.
David Gillis of Facebook explained on Twitter that the company has seen good results from its informed sharing screens. He added that the company is today rolling out a new treatment for links related to the coronavirus. Before sharing such posts, users will now see the source as well as the date of those links. David Gillis said that the company hopes that this new tool will help users get more context at a time and on a topic that is quickly evolving.
The new pop-up displays the source publication of a post related to the coronavirus as well as how long that source publication has been publishing on Facebook’s platform. It also provides the original date that the post was published on the social media platform, which may also help to slow the re-sharing of older posts on Facebook.
Back in June of this year, the company rolled out similar prompts for general posts when users look to share posts that are over 90 days old. This is the latest effort of the company to curb the flow of misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic. During the last few months, the company has sought to remove all posts across Facebook’s platforms that present fake claims about treatments, cures, or the location and severity of the coronavirus outbreak.
Furthermore, the company has also banned all ads as well as commerce listings which seek to capitalize on fears including listings of hand sanitizers, face masks, and coronavirus testing kits, etc. Facebook-owned Instagram also started to remove all non-official coronavirus accounts from suggestions listings. To reduce the spread of viral messages on WhatsApp, the company also set a limit on the number of times a message could be forwarded on the Facebook-owned messaging service. Facebook also added an official ‘COVID-19 information center’ and improved Facebook’s machine learning tools to better identify and remove accounts engaged in mass messaging.
Read next: Facebook decides not to include political sites masking as independent news outlets in its News section
David Gillis of Facebook explained on Twitter that the company has seen good results from its informed sharing screens. He added that the company is today rolling out a new treatment for links related to the coronavirus. Before sharing such posts, users will now see the source as well as the date of those links. David Gillis said that the company hopes that this new tool will help users get more context at a time and on a topic that is quickly evolving.
The new pop-up displays the source publication of a post related to the coronavirus as well as how long that source publication has been publishing on Facebook’s platform. It also provides the original date that the post was published on the social media platform, which may also help to slow the re-sharing of older posts on Facebook.
Back in June of this year, the company rolled out similar prompts for general posts when users look to share posts that are over 90 days old. This is the latest effort of the company to curb the flow of misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic. During the last few months, the company has sought to remove all posts across Facebook’s platforms that present fake claims about treatments, cures, or the location and severity of the coronavirus outbreak.
Furthermore, the company has also banned all ads as well as commerce listings which seek to capitalize on fears including listings of hand sanitizers, face masks, and coronavirus testing kits, etc. Facebook-owned Instagram also started to remove all non-official coronavirus accounts from suggestions listings. To reduce the spread of viral messages on WhatsApp, the company also set a limit on the number of times a message could be forwarded on the Facebook-owned messaging service. Facebook also added an official ‘COVID-19 information center’ and improved Facebook’s machine learning tools to better identify and remove accounts engaged in mass messaging.
Read next: Facebook decides not to include political sites masking as independent news outlets in its News section
