Facebook, Google, Twitter and others join forces to fight coronavirus fake news

Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube are joining forces to fight misinformation related to the coronavirus outbreak. 

“We are working closely together on COVID-19 response efforts. We’re helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in coordination with government healthcare agencies around the world. We invite other companies to join us as we work to keep our communities healthy and safe,” the companies said in a joint statement, posted on Facebook’s website. 

Other signees have posted the same statement on their social media channels. 

Some of the companies on the list have already taken measures to combat coronavirus fake news.

In February, Facebook said it would ban ads for supposed cures for the virus, and the company stated back in January that it would work to “limit the spread of misinformation and harmful content about the virus and [connect] people to helpful information.” Last week, Google said it has set up a 24-hour incident response team to combat the outbreak, and outlined its efforts to bring factual information to its users, as well as protect them from misinformation. YouTube adjusted its policy to demonetize videos related to coronavirus, but the company quickly backed down from the move. And Twitter has recently been removing misleading tweets about the outbreak. 

Amazon, which isn’t listed as a signee, took efforts in February to remove fake products promising to “kill” coronavirus from its virtual shelves. 

It’s unclear whether the joint statement merely reiterates efforts made so far, or if the companies plan to implement new measures. We’ve reached out to Facebook to find out more and will update the article when we hear back. 

The tech giants are helping the fight against the outbreak in other ways, too. In the past couple of days, Microsoft launched a coronavirus tracker and Google’s sister company Verily launched a coronavirus screening site. 

The coronavirus has so far killed more than 7,100 and infected more than 182,400 people. The outbreak has been worsening in the U.S. in recent weeks, with more than 4,400 confirmed cases and 86 deaths.