How the COVID-19 is testing social media’s ability to fight misinformation

As a result of how rapidly the coronavirus is spreading, the content related to the virus that is being posted has become a high-stake test for social media platforms to fight misinformation.  False recommendations about how to avoid contracting the virus or the measures that individuals should take to prevent the spread has the potential to sicken more people and even lead to more deaths. According to the data from Sprinkl, there were more than 19 million mentions related to COVID-19 across social media, blogs, and online news sites worldwide on March 11^th. I am almost sure that now there are even more mentions given that it has spread more and is present in 144 countries.  The article goes on to mention that the COVID-19 mentions came from legitimate sources but because how fast this is spreading and how rapidly changes are occurring, it is possible for a large portion of it to be inaccurate or outdated.

Facebook uses an automated system to serve potentially inaccurate content to third party checkers who then identify, review and rate inaccurate stories so that the distribution can be reduced. However, this method is highly ineffective and time consuming given the rapid changes that are occurring. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook did report accurate information regarding COVID-19, but the issue arises when average citizens, celebrities, and politicians use these platforms as a way to spread information and in turn the health and safety information can easily get drowned out.

Many social media platforms have taken steps to address this issue. For example, Facebook has provided the World Health Organization with free ads as they need and blocked ads from brands that may be exploiting the situation by claiming that their products cure the virus.  Twitter directs its users to local health authorities like the CDC in the U.S.  However, it takes all social media platforms to come together to fight the misinformation.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, Microsoft and Google have come together to ban the spread of misinformation. This shows that there is a significant amount of work to do in order to reduce the spread. It’s not an easy task since we often get updates on a daily basis. So I hope that they take swift action to address this issue.