Facebook has decided that they will start showing a warning to those users who have come across or like fake coronavirus information. Facebook will roll out this feature in the coming week to fight against “harmful” coronavirus misinformation.
Under this feature, if a user likes or reacts with an emoji to a piece of information or news before they were deleted by Facebook will see a message in their news feed which will redirect them to a “myth busters” page maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Facebook said in their blog post, “We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook”.
Facebook is also separately launching a “Get the Facts” section full of news and information from the Fack check network. The new policy applies only to misinformation that Facebook considers likely to contribute to “imminent physical harm”, such as false claims about “cures”.
Although Facebook doesn’t other types of misinformation like conspiracy theories. Rather Facebook decided that when content is rated false by fact-checkers, Facebook reduces its distribution and adds a notice to the post.