Twitter has added a new feature to combat claims that voting by mail is unsafe and a security risk. The social media firm is placing a banner at the top of users’ feeds that preemptively debunks to topic and provides people with ‘factual information.’ ‘With so many more people voting by mail and potentially delayed … Read more
Go Viral! Cambridge University and UK Government release an online game designed to teach people to spot fake Covid-19 news on social media The game puts players in the shoes of someone who shares misinformation They are encouraged to ‘post’ increasingly elaborate messages about Covid-19 Researchers say it can help to demystify the tools used to manipulate … Read more
Facebook is defending a recent update to Messenger that limits the number of times a message can be forwarded. Users can now only forward a message a maximum of five times, as the firm aims to tamp down on misinformation campaigns – especially about the presidential election and coronavirus pandemic. If a user is warned … Read more
Pete Evans ‘BANNED’ from Facebook: Disgraced celebrity chef says his ‘reach is disappearing’ as the social media giant cracks down on COVID-19 misinformation The anti-vaxxer and COVID-19 conspiracy theorist, 47, believes Facebook has ‘shadow-banned’ his page ‘Shadow-banning’ is an alternative to permanently blocking someone from a website, and involves making a user’s content harder to find … Read more
Facebook has come under fire recently for allowing medical misinformation to run rampant on its platform and a new report finds it may be worse than previously believed. Non-profit group Avaaz found 84 percent of posts with false claims and advice have gone unlabeled to warn users of the misleading content. Not only did Facebook’s … Read more
Google has been accused of spreading ‘misinformation’ by claiming Australians will be denied free internet searches if tech giants like them are forced to pay for news they use. Anyone using the search engine is now confronted with a yellow exclamation mark with a link to a so-called ‘open letter to Australians’ from the company’s … Read more
Facebook banned one of the biggest anti-mask groups on its platform for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 Facebook has removed one of the biggest anti-mask groups on its platform The group was spreading misinformation about COVID-19 Unfounded claims include masks preventing oxygen flow and psychological effects Other groups still exist on the platform and Facebook said … Read more
The EU on Tuesday formally accused China and Russia of mounting targeted coronavirus disinformation campaigns to undermine European democracy, in documents seen by AFP. In a paper on what it called the ‘flood’ of misleading and inaccurate information proliferating around the pandemic, Brussels says Beijing and Moscow had set out to polarise debate and burnish … Read more
International group of fact-checkers launch a myth-busting WhatsApp bot that lets users query terms like ‘masks’ to pull up trustworthy information on coronavirus The bot is designed by Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checkers Network It can be queried by WhatsApp users and pulls from the IFCN’s database IFCN’s chatbot also directs users to their local fact-check … Read more
YouTube adds fact-check ‘information panels’ to search results in the US in an effort to prevent the spread of misinformation amid coronavirus pandemic The panels will contain articles from third-party fact checkers They will show up in video searches to help debunk misinformation Among the topics affected will be COVID-19 related videos YouTube will slowly … Read more