Coronavirus: Facebook, Google and Twitter fight misinformation: The rapid spread of the coronavirus in China and around the world has forced Facebook, Google and Twitter to try to prevent a different disease – a wave of inaccuracies and delusions about the deadly disease.
The three Silicon Valley tech giants are struggling to curb dangerous health misinformation, including posts, photos and videos that try to scare people into not getting vaccinated. But the companies face their biggest enemy in the risk of a potential pandemic now that the coronavirus has infected 4,400 people in China, killing at least 100, and five more people in the United States have shown symptoms.
Already, Facebook and other companies have tried to counter widespread conspiracy theories, including a hoax falsely claiming that U.S. government officials secretly created the disease. Some of the misinformation has been circulating through private Facebook groups, where it is difficult for researchers to monitor in real time.
“Oregano oil proves effective against coronavirus,” is the headline of an article that has been shared at least 2,000 times in multiple groups as of Monday. This view emerged a decade ago and comes from a holistic health website – scientists have reported that there is no such treatment for coronavirus.
Seven organizations working with Facebook have issued nine fact checks in recent days, finding a wide range of claims about the coronavirus to be false, including those marketing fake cures, the company said on Monday. Facebook said it has flagged the inaccuracies and reduced their appearance in users’ daily feeds.
Twitter , meanwhile, on Monday began directing U.S. users searching for coronavirus-related hashtags to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. YouTube also said its algorithm prioritizes more reliable sources. However, several videos — including one with more than 430,000 views — have spread dubious information about the origin of the coronavirus and its means of transmission .
The threat of misinformation highlights how powerful social media tools are for organizing and creating communities that can quickly become false prophets during times of health anxiety. Whether out of malice, fear or misunderstanding, users can easily share and amplify misinformation, complicating the work of doctors and government officials in the midst of a public health crisis.
In trying to avoid coronavirus misinformation, Facebook, Google and Twitter are also addressing their responsibilities as online media outlets.
On the one hand, they and other tech giants strongly claim that they are not acting as “guardians of truth,” in the words of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, deciding what users can say online. At the same time, however, they recognize that completely unfiltered speech carries enormous risks, especially in the health and medical fields, where the posts, photos, and videos people share can shape how patients think, as well as their decisions to seek and receive necessary care.
In general, all three tech giants maintain specific policies on health-related posts, aimed at ensuring that digital conversations don’t cause real-life harm. But Silicon Valley are still struggling to strike the right balance in the eyes of health professionals. It took months of criticism, for example, before Facebook took action on content that falsely linked vaccines to autism. Many such groups promoting “natural” treatments still exist, though Facebook now warns people before joining them.
Similarly, with anti-vaccine videos, Google tweaked YouTube last year to stop a wide range of harmful content from appearing in search results, and Twitter has made similar efforts to redirect users searching for anti-vaccine topics to more trustworthy results. However, dangerous misinformation is still available on these platforms as well, drawing rebukes from U.S. health officials who continue to see social media as a breeding ground for misinformation.
Major disease outbreaks threaten to serve as a breeding ground for even more harmful misinformation, experts said. Nearly four years ago, inaccurate posts about the global mosquito-borne disease Zika reduced the popularity of more authoritative sources of information about the outbreak, according to researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Their 2016 findings raise new concerns about Facebook, Google and Twitter as the coronavirus emerges as a new global health threat.
“Scientists are examining samples of the coronavirus, but we don’t yet know all the possible patterns of its spread,” said Joan Donovan, director of the Technology Research Program at the Shorenstein Center.
As infection counts rise, Facebook and Twitter have been hit with an influx of popular posts over the weekend suggesting that the United States or other foreign governments created the coronavirus. One tweet – calling the coronavirus a “rabid disease” – had been shared nearly 5,000 times on Twitter as of Monday.
More than 1,100 Facebook users, seemingly fearful of the deadly disease, have flooded the “Coronavirus Warning Watch” group. People there are discussing theories about its spread — in some cases suggesting it’s a “depopulation” — along with links to where to buy masks and other medical gear.
"This situation is evolving rapidly and we will continue to reach out to global and regional health organizations for support and assistance," said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.
