AVOIDING FAKE NEWS SURROUNDING COVID-19
Since the growth of cases in coronavirus, the UK anti-fake news unit have been seeing over 10 cases per day producing misleading and often completely incorrect information regarding COVID-19.
Where fake-news articles are posted online or on social media platforms, the unit will look to remove the post but are looking into ways of tackling the content where removal is not possible.
The unit intend to contact all social media platforms with the intent of tackling false narratives from being posted online that may provide false advice and may affect the livelihood of many.
Further, the unit have contacted telecoms companies requesting that text messengers thought to be scams or provide false information to the public, be blocked and removed.
Oliver Dowden, the secretary for culture and digital, expressed “we need people to follow expert medical advice and stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. It is vital that this message hits home and that misinformation and disinformation which undermines it is knocked down quickly”.
It is clear that many articles have been posted for scare-mongering but it is vital that as a nation, we remain positive and follow only the advice published by government or health officials.