Facebook displayed warnings on about 40 million posts on the platform related to Covid-19, based on around 4,000 articles by its independent fact-checking partners during the month of March.
Facebook said that when people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not go on to view the original content. To date, the social media giant also removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm.
“On Facebook and Instagram, we’ve now directed more than 2 billion people to authoritative health resources via our Covid-19 Information Center and educational pop-ups, with more than 350 million people clicking through to learn more,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Thursday.
Since the beginning of March, it has expanded its fact-checking coverage to more than a dozen new countries and now work with over 60 fact-checking organizations that review content in more than 50 languages.
The company is also going to start showing messages in News Feed to people who have liked, reacted or commented on harmful misinformation about Covid-19 that it has since removed, connecting them with accurate information.
“Through this crisis, one of my top priorities is making sure that you see accurate and authoritative information across all of our apps,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook is additionally launching a new feature called ‘Get The Facts’, a section of its Covid-19 Information Center featuring articles written by independent fact-checking partners debunking misinformation about the coronavirus.
The company gave grants to 13 fact-checking organizations around the world to support projects in Italy, Spain, Colombia, India, the Republic of Congo, and other nations.
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