The social media giant Facebook is changing how it reaches people who have encountered misinformation on its platform. The company will now send notifications to anyone who has liked, commented, or shared a piece of COVID-19 misinformation that’s been taken down for violating the platform’s terms of service, via Fastcompany.
It will then connect users with trustworthy sources in effort to correct the record. While researchers think the additional context could help people better understand their news consumption habits, it may be too little, too late to quell the tide of COVID-19 misinformation.
Image: Facebook, Fast Company
“The challenge we were facing and the fine balance we’re trying to strike is how do we provide enough information to give the user context about [the interaction] we’re talking about without reexposing them to misinformation,” says Magliulo. The concern that Magliulo highlights is that the platform could unintentionally reinforce the misinformation it’s trying to debunk.
