You don’t want to hold our major tech companies liable for a crisis. Because they’ve previously overlooked most of the disinformation that their recommendation algorithms unintentionally propagated, they have an advantage because people have a tendency to have low expectations.
Each day arrives a new slew of stories concerning new diagnoses, cancellations of conferences, limits on employees’ travel, and so forth in the American COVID-19 problem. It appears that the novel coronavirus, like so much else, is going to get worse before it gets better.
Despite this, I can’t help but notice encouraging indicators in the recent headlines. Big internet and social media businesses are taking serious action to direct people to timely and accurate information on the infection. Some of those measures are already being taken in advance. There are a few here.
The CDC’s page on COVID-19 has been linked to in Facebook’s news feed since it began doing so more than a week ago. This may seem like a little change, but it signals a significant shift in Facebook’s News Feed strategy.
Personalization is at the heart of Facebook’s feed, which tries to show you just content it believes you’ll be interested in, whether it’s because you’re friends with someone or have liked a page. An unusual algorithmic thumb on the scale, Facebook’s infection box undoubtedly drove many millions of people to authoritative, vetted information.
The company’s response to the virus’s spread was beefed up on Tuesday night. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post that his firm would provide the World Health Organization with unlimited free ad credits in order to spread correct information about the situation.
False claims and conspiracy theories that have been recognized by key global health organizations will also be removed, as will ads that “attempt to exploit the situation,” such as falsely advertising a solution. These are also good steps, but the policy is what you actually implement, as it always has been and always will be. We’ll have to wait and see!
On Wednesday, Twitter announced that it had introduced similar restrictions. Public health organizations and trustworthy mainstream news sources are all included in the search results for COVID-19. The company claims that the search takes into account typical misspellings.
Social media platform Twitter has also stated that it will take a “zero tolerance approach to platform manipulation and any other attempts to abuse our service at this vital juncture,”
even if it hasn’t witnessed Russian-style efforts to sow discord via large-scale information operations yet. Of course, this is easier said than done, but at least it’s evident that the issue is being addressed by the organization. It’s also donating ad credits to charity and public health organizations.
For individuals who must work or study from home, Google is providing sophisticated streaming options to all G Suite premium customers as a convenience. Jay Peters, a coworker of mine, explains what that implies in practice:
Google announced this morning that all G Suite and G Suite for Education subscribers worldwide will be granted free access to Hangouts Meet’s “advanced” features through July 1st.
Organizations may now hold meetings for up to 250 people, broadcast live to up to 100,000 viewers, and record and save meetings to Google Drive. In addition to G Suite, Google charges an additional $13 per user per month for these additional capabilities, which totals $25 per user per month.
A free six-month trial of Microsoft Teams, which allows distant workers to communicate via video and text chat, was offered by the software giant in a similar move.
This has a strong undertone of self-aggrandizement. During times of crisis, IT companies give away their products for free in order to attract new paying consumers, just like newspapers lower their paywalls. I believe many companies will find it beneficial as well as a good deed to do it this way.
When searching for “COVID-19,” “coronavirus,” and related terms, Pinterest only displays results from “internationally renowned health organizations,” a practice it pioneered before Facebook and Twitter followed suit.
While historically more open to conspiracies than other major media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube, which is owned by Google, now prominently features a World Health Organization website on the virus spread.
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A popular YouTube “explainer” with a misleading explanation of the origin of the coronavirus collected over 13 million views before YouTube banned it in the early days of the crisis, BuzzFeed reported. Although the sickness has been widely publicized in Europe, conspiracy videos about it have failed to garner even a million views in the US.
However, that doesn’t mean that disinformation isn’t being disseminated on tech platforms, just as it’s being disseminated on the greater internet and among friends and family.
“A deluge of misinformation” has been uncovered by the Washington Post in nations such as Nigeria and Singapore, as well as Pakistan and Ireland, on Facebook-owned WhatsApp. It’s difficult to estimate the scope of the problem because the app is encrypted.
(The New York Post doesn’t actually speculate on the matter.) WhatsApp groups, which can only have up to 250 members, are notorious for spreading false information. To propagate false hope or harmful rumors, it is easier to share information inside one group than it is to transmit it across different groups.
In spite of this, people continue to engage in this practice. In return, we have instruments that allow us to communicate in ways the government can’t. Encryption firms should design their products to limit the harm caused by messaging app hoaxes, which I believe will be inevitable. That, however, is by no means a guarantee.
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