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Facebook will warn users before they share articles of COVID-19

Facebook’s new notification screen will attempt to help combat the spread of potentially harmful COVID-19 misinformation. It will also provide more context about an article, its link, source and when it was first shared.

Facebook’s goal

Facebook said: “The goal is to help people understand the recency and source of the content before they share it” and to direct “people to our COVID-19 Information Centre to ensure people have access to credible information about COVID-19 from global health authorities.”

It builds on the platform’s existing recency notifications, which it launched in June to help cut down on the spread of older links that routinely resurface in ways that can misrepresent current events.

NEW NOTIFICATION SCREEN

The new notification screen is part of an ongoing series of measures Facebook has since March tried to prevent its platform from becoming a conduit for dangerous coronavirus-related conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation.

At the onset of the pandemic, the company began putting vetted coronavirus information from trusted health and medical authorities at the top of the News Feed.

CERTAIN INFORMATION SOURCES TO BE EXEMPTED

Facebook has had to take more active measures to combat the fast-moving spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. This includes banning anti-mask groups and placing anti-misinformation messages into the news feeds of users who may have engaged with fake coronavirus stories.

Facebook said it will be exempting certain information sources to ensure trusted and helpful links don’t get caught in the screen. This will help prevent the spread of old, out of date and false information.

“Along those lines, we want to ensure we don’t slow the spread of information from credible health authorities, so content posted by government health authorities and recognised global health organisations, like the World Health Organisation, will not have this notification,” Facebook said.

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