How Does Social Media Prevent Fake News From Spreading?
Recently, not only the Coronavirus has spread all over the world besides China, its fake news and rumors are also surged on the social media. People in the western start to pay attention to this disease and take any action to avoid getting one. However, in this case, social media is a common place for people intuitively sharing their concerns and horrors, also, the rumors.
On March 12th, POLITICO published the article about how social media giants fight the spreading of fake news about Coronavirus and then sadly say that the methods did not work well. As the outbreak of the pandemic gets worse, people are more likely in panic and tend to believe the misinformation whatever shows on the platform.
So, let’s discuss the article.
What does Google do to prevent fake news?
Google’s team protect their users from phishing, conspiracy theories, and misinformation, and they are regularly checking out any potential threats appearing on the Internet. On YouTube, they are working to quickly remove any content that claims to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment. Furthermore, they are blocking all ads capitalizing on the coronavirus on Google Ads. As a result, they’ve blocked tens of thousands of ads over the last six weeks.
What does Facebook do to prevent fake news?
Facebook is supporting the global public health community’s work to keep people safe and informed. Not only they are limiting misinformation and harmful content about COVID-19 but also clamp down on online virus rumors and banned ads that promoted the sale of medical face masks. They are also prohibiting ads intended to create panic or imply that certain products guarantee a cure or prevent people from contracting the Coronavirus.
What does Twitter do to prevent fake news?
Twitter announced official reports about symptoms of contracting coronavirus and downgraded any crazy conspiracy theories. Moreover, they are partnership with World Health Organization, as known as WHO, to share the video about pandemic precautions.
Why it hasn’t work?
According to the article, although these social media companies endeavor to stop rumors on the Internet, people are sharing rumors, fake stories and half-truths about the virus with each other directly across the likes or comments of Instagram or Facebook. It’s difficult to ban all the fraud while protecting people’s right to speak what they want.
Google now is trying to ban some coronavirus-related apps from its smartphone store and blocked people who are looking to make money from the pandemic by buying ads on its digital networks. Facebook, too, has adjusted its algorithms to promote official accounts for its 2.4 billion users and removed false content about coronavirus.
Despite the actions these companies are throwing at the problem, it’s hard to stop misinformation spreading when users, who have been encouraged to share detail of their daily lives online by using these social platforms, are now sharing news immediately without pondering the accuracy.
My thoughts about the article
As a current graduate student in New York City, where now has the highest cases in the United States, I think people should be worried about the pandemic at first place because it’s a serious thing that people in China have confronted with, not because the social media starts to discuss it and begin to panic. Every social media platform with user-generated information majorly accounts for false information considering the lack of evidence of state-backed accounts promoting the sharing of coronavirus-related misinformation. If there’s new information coming up, we should be sensible to check the source and where it starts spreading. Think twice when sharing anything on social media.
