A bug in Facebook’s News Feed Anti Spam Filter caused the platform to mistakenly mark some posts from individuals and publishers about the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 as spam.
Facebook’s vice president of integrity, Guy Rosen, said in a tweet that the company was in the process of “fixing and bringing all these posts back”. Although he has denied that the problem arose due to Facebook’s decision to send home contract workers who moderate posts in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
However, after a few hours, Facebook removed the bug and restored the posts that were affected by it. As mentioned by Rosen, Facebook has restored all the incorrectly removed posts related to COVID-19 or any other general topic.
The problem also comes as social media platforms continue to combat Covid-19-related misinformation. Facebook along with other tech giants like Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn Twitter, Reddit, and YouTub has decided that they will fight against the COVID-19 misinformation.
Although a report by Ranking Digital Rights claimed that Facebook’s current moderation policies will not be able to tackle the spread of Coronavirus misinformation. It goes without saying that, in order to fight against the spread of fake information related to Coronavirus, Facebook will be required to change its moderator policies.