Social media companies have upped their game on misinformation during the pandemic but is it enough? Facebook fact checkers discovered less than 1% of videos which were deemed as misinformation and added warning labels, so 99% slipped through the net. 🙀 

As the pandemic broke out Tech companies have been doing their bit to help stem the flow of misinformation on social media sites but has it been enough? A study by the Oxford Internet Institute and the Reuters Institute for the Study of journalism revealed that the primary source of coronavirus misinformation videos are social media and these are shared via Facebook. Out of 8,105 videos shared on Facebook, which were deemed as misinformation, only 55 videos came with warning labels, this is less than 1% of the video’s showing the fact checkers have a long way to go.

Google have been working hard and it is shows, their improved algorithm removes the fake news when people search for Coronavirus related information on YouTube and they will find accurate sources. However, despite the fake ones being removed, this often happens after they have been seen and shared on Facebook. Between October 2019 and June 2020 Covid related misinformation videos from YouTube were shared nearly 20 million times on Facebook. Sadly this is more shares than the top 5 news sources on YouTube (CNN, ABC News, BBC, Fox News and Al Jazeera), which was 15 million shares. 😔

So before you share some interesting covid related cure such as lemons or garlic soup will save you, have a think 🤔 , research 🧐 , and understand what you are sharing 🤓 .

Working on stopping the spread of Covid misinformation is an important task, one that we should all think about when sharing information on social media, false claims quickly spread over borders and infiltrate all countries with sometimes dangerous outcomes.

If in doubt have a look at these Covid claims on the button below and check out #CoronaVirusFacts 🙌