Facebook to roll out campaign to fight Covid related misinformation

The campaign, to be launched in coming weeks, will encourage users to check the information they receive against an authentic source such as www.mygov.in/Covid-19/.

The social media giant has also developed six easy tips to fight Covid-19 misinformation. These tips will show up on Facebook through a series of creative adverts, and link out to a dedicated microsite, www.fightCovidmisinfo.com/india/.

Through the website and the adverts, we will encourage people to get the whole story, not just the headline; look out for a trusted source; share facts, not rumours; get the full context from credible sources; iform friends and family if they are sharing inaccurate information and pause before sharing, Facebook said in a statement.

The campaign and the website will be rolled out in English and 9 Indian languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati and Bengali.

The tech giant has also made significant investments to remove accounts and content that violate Community Standards or Ad Policies and reduce the distribution of misinformation and false news.

"During the pandemic, we've removed more than 12 million pieces of harmful misinformation on Covid-19 globally from Facebook and Instagram, including falsehoods about approved vaccines," it shared in the statement.

Facebook has put warning labels on over 167 million posts marked as false by third-party fact checkers. When people see warning labels, about 95 per cent of the time they do not go on to view the original content, it added.

Facebook has also initiated a campaign in association with some of the leading doctors of the country. The campaign includes a series of 12 videos where Doctors address the most commonly asked questions on Covid-19. The video series -- #DoctorKiSuno -- will premiere on https://www.facebook.com/FacebookIndiaA and will cover key topics like Covid-19 in children, Diabetes and Covid-19, the mental health impacts of Covid-19 among others.