“As the global public health community works to keep people safe, Facebook is supporting their work in several ways, most especially by working to limit the spread of misinformation and harmful content about the virus and connecting people to helpful information,” the company said in a statement on late Thursday.
According to Facebook, its team of third-party fact-checkers continues to review content, and when the published information is assessed as false, its spread will be limited. The company will also inform users who publish such information about the results of fact-checking.
“We will also start to remove content with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them. We are doing this as an extension of our existing policies to remove content that could cause physical harm,” the company said.
The new deadly strain of coronavirus was first detected in December in China’s Wuhan and has since spread to 19 countries. The epidemic has already left 213 people dead and 9,692 infected in China.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern over the outbreak of coronavirus.
