Faceboook fights spread of coronavirus misinformation

as health officials struggle to contain the coronavirus social media platforms like Facebook continue to fight the spread of misinformation about the deadly disease online david Klepper is a reporter for The Associated Press he joins me from Providence Rhode Island with more so David explained to us exactly what kind of measures for example Facebook is taking to stop the spread of coronavirus misinformation sure thank you for having me Facebook and all the other social media companies are really grappling with what to do right now with just a wave of misinformation false claims hoaxes about the coronavirus

Facebook announced some steps last week including move to remove any posts or content that make potentially dangerous claims about the disease they said they want to focus on claims about treatment or claims that discourage people from getting medical attention we've seen we've been tracking the misinformation on the coronavirus at the AAP and we've seen hoaxes about bleach being curative we've seen claims that the disease was actually manufactured so there's a lot of bad information out there and I think the social media platforms understand they have some role in trying to stop it and so you

mentioned just a couple of some of the misleading claims that have been circulating online what else have you seen and if we're gonna talk about hoaxes and misleading claims let's also tell people what the truth is absolutely and the truth is bleach does not cure the corona virus and there is no evidence it was manufactured by anyone that's two of the more popular things we've seen we've seen a lot of claims regarding the death toll extremely exaggerated death tolls that are not backed up by any of the authorities I saw one this morning a conservative

group on Twitter was was talking about death tolls in the tens of thousands when in fact it is about 500 so you know it's incredibly important that people get real information about this not only to reduce panic but also that so that people that are legitimately concerned about catch in treating this disease can get the information that they need so as you know it doesn't I mean in the United States we have freedom of the press and and the the right to free speech but we've still seen a misleading information for example when it comes

to political ads in political campaigns and politics in general on social media sites I wonder though in a country like China which does not enjoy the same freedoms there's been a lot of reporting there both from the AAP the New York Times CBS News that the secrecy and the way that the Chinese government tries to control the flow of information may have ultimately or at least initially contributed to this misinformation spreading in other words there's this vacuum because the Chinese government is trying to contain and put a lid on what's going on in Wuhan and

that leads to actually the spread of misinformation did you have you've seen that as well I think anytime you have an authority trying to control the amount of information getting out about an important topic you're going to arouse suspicion among the public and we have seen that we have seen I think this is a perfect example of why it's important to get accurate comprehensive information about public health out there to the public as soon as possible because I think the less you say about this or the rosier painting you try to paint about the situation

that's just going to prompt more of this kind of misinformation as people look elsewhere and look online for the answers they're not getting from authorities and are there any other online Giants that are sort of working to stem the flow of misinformation yeah absolutely they're all trying and they all have slightly different approaches based on the platform whether it's YouTube Instagram Twitter they've all taken various approaches Facebook and Twitter both announced last week that they were implementing a tool when someone searches on Facebook Instagram or Twitter for information about the corona virus they will be

given a link to authoritative accurate information from public health authorities the World Health Organization or the CDC and Instagram Pinterest all the others have have announced steps that to attempt to remove false information or at least give the people that are looking for information links to good sources alright there's me know what you're talking about very good point to make there David clapper from The Associated Press thank you David absolutely thank you