Facebook new section to debunk coronavirus myths

Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on October 23, 2019.Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty ImagesFacebook on Wednesday announced it will launch a new section of its social network dedicated to dispel inaccurate myths about Covid-19. It’s the company’s latest effort to stop the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus, following notifications encouraging everybody to wear a mask, and efforts to mark misleading posts as false.The company, which has nearly 3 billion monthly active users across its services, will have a new “Facts About Covid-19” section within its app and website where it will “debunk common myths about the pandemic,” Facebook said in a tweet.The sample screen shown in the tweet suggests that Facebook will use the World Health Organization as a trusted source, and will include simple statements of fact like “Hydroxychloroquine hasn’t been proven to cure, treat, or prevent it.”Facebook has previously said social networks should not be the arbiters of truth, and has refused to ban misleading political advertisements.In the same string of tweets, the company also announced that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will interview Dr. Anthony Fauci about the pandemic and the government’s response to it at 2pm PT on Thursday. Fauci, who is the the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been a leading government voice on the pandemic and responses to it, but has recently drawn criticism from some in the Trump administration. On Tuesday, presidential trade advisor Peter Navarro criticized Fauci in an op-ed, saying he was “wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” but the White House said on Wednesday that the op-ed did not go through “normal White House clearance processes.”


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