A series of social networks are fighting against fake news related to Wuhan-level pneumonia

Perhaps before being infected with Wuhan virus, we were infected with the so-called false and fake information right from social networks.

Before every important and influential event, there is always false information and fraudulent on social networks. At this time, the role of the major social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter is very important.

Ever since the outbreak of coronary pneumonia, there have been a lot of rumors and fake news spreading in the social segment, such as the virus originating from a seafood and meat market in Wuhan. Information about a parent leaving their children at an airport because of an epidemic.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has enacted legislation to prevent corona virus or the United States has licensed the corona virus vaccine years ago. There is even a conspiracy theory that says the Wuhan virus originated from a Chinese laboratory and scientist who had a long-standing preventive vaccine.

It is just one of the few examples involving fake news spread on the Internet and social networks at this time.

Historically, health topics have always been a popular target for fake news outlets. Most of them are salespeople who want to trick people into bewilderment, in order to profit for more products. However, with information such as epidemics, fake news is often more difficult to control because of the high level of interest, accompanied by the fear of the crowd and a large number of posts on the same topic.

Recently, Facebook has officially warned that it will “slash” all articles that falsely report on coronary pneumonia. Posts can be shared by individuals or organizations publicly or in Facebook groups.

The billionaire social network claims to block or limit hashtags that spread false information about corona viruses and unscientific treatments. In addition, Facebook will update disease information right on the News Feed and data is taken from WHO sources.

The Facebook post falsely believes that the US has licensed a vaccine for this disease long ago

The fake news calls the Wuhan virus an opportunity for Israel to wage biological wars

Google, which owns the social network YouTube and the largest search engine on the planet, has also taken strong measures. Google says it is prioritizing “pushing” reputable sources of information from health professionals, major health organizations or mainstream newspapers to the top of search results and in the “Watch Next” section. on Youtube.

Google insists that the company always prefers selected, censored sources when it comes to health-related search results.

A YouTube video spread the news that nearly 100,000 people were exposed to the corona virus

The US technology firm said it would prioritize displaying videos from legitimate sources to reduce the spread of false information. Because high-quality, verified videos can take a long time to upload, YouTube will display previews of pneumonic-related articles above YouTube search results.

Even China’s social network TikTok has stepped up its censorship of false information about Wuhan viruses over the past several weeks.

Or as social networking site Twitter has labeled the link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US when users search for the keyword “coronavirus”.

Twitter redirects users to the link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

However, Twitter’s efforts are not likely to be strong enough to prevent a panic from spreading fake news. It is worth mentioning that false news content often attracts a large number of people who like, share and watch.

Fake news on Twitter claims the Wuhan virus can kill 65 million people

A Twitter account spread fake news claiming that the Wuhan virus is in fact a biological weapon to kill Chinese people

The challenge is still great

Axios, a fairly reputable media site recently citing general sources, showed that at least 13,000 posts on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit from 24-27 January spread the conspiracy legend that the Wuhan virus is a biological weapon or a means to reduce the population.

The volume of fake news posts on social networks will continue to increase in the near future. According to Twitter, there have been at least 15 million tweets in the past 4 weeks and that trend will be hard to stop.

So how to avoid spreading false information related to corona virus? Be proactive yourself to apply the following measures:

– Sharing is sometimes not the right way to care: Limit sharing of posts to your friends and family without checking their accuracy. It is best to access and get information from local and international public health organizations.

– Always be wary of posts that do not come from reputable sources on social networks

– Stop blindly trusting the Internet: Fake news is sometimes difficult to detect because it is quite close to reality. But pay attention to the unusual and exaggerated details.

It is especially important to check the image because many people instinctively believe in images rather than written information. Therefore, the fake broadcasters can use a photo related to the same event to illustrate the information they want to talk about. That is not to mention a number of photos have been edited, faked to deceive people. If in doubt, copy the image URL and search on the Google Images tool to find out the facts.

In case you see too many fake news appear, change the way you choose content in News Feed to avoid encountering false sources.

Refer to USAToday