Facebook India’s take on misinformation around Covid-19

Science & Technology

To bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and false news on the platform, Facebook India took several initiatives. With over 290 million users, Facebook is the largest social media platform in India with its constantly growing daily active user base.

As false information spreads like wildfire, Facebook India in its successful attempts was able to refute false information being shared on the platform by launching campaigns and setting up dedicated tools. The information that users share is mostly not fake, its an amalgamation of some fake and some authentic news, this mixture actually is more lethal as it seems more reliable as compared to complete fake news and is even more difficult to identify.

An excerpt from Facebook’s media page reads, “We’ve started a program to work with independent third-party fact-checking organizations. We’ll use the reports from our community, along with other signals, to send stories to these organizations. If the fact-checking organizations identify a story as false, it will get flagged as disputed and there will be a link to a corresponding article explaining why. Stories that have been disputed also appear lower in News Feed.”

Also Read: COVID-19: Facebook India combats misinformation

Not just third-party reports, Facebook has also set up a team within the organization to identify authentic and skeptical NGOs and other non-profit organizations so people don’t become victims of crowdfunding scams.

Facebook even collaborated with celebrity grade people and made them a part of campaigns to help authentic initiatives drive more impact. “Arijit Singh, one of India’s most eminent personalities in the music industry, has collaborated with GiveIndia and Facebook through its SocialForGood initiative focused on supporting large community causes by bringing together public figures and creators to raise awareness and funding. This is the first time Arijit is hosting a live fundraiser and through his campaign titled ‘Helping rural India breathe and stay safe’, Arijit intends to raise funds to help provide medical equipment and healthcare needs to help those in small towns and villages, such as his own hometown of Murshidabad in West Bengal”, said a Facebook official.