Facebook use stepped up amid Covid-19

It is safe to argue that the novel Coronavirus is just about the biggest disruption the world has known, probably only comparable to the two World Wars. Thanks to Covid-19, we are together, but separated by social-distance. We now work and meet loved ones virtually while we discover new passions and talents as we readjust to the new world order due to the pandemic.

The necessity of social media, especially at these moments of limited mobility, cannot be gain-said, as a medium to connect, socialise and pursue a common agenda. Social media’s importance as a source of information has been reinforced, even though it is soft-underbelly as a purveyor of misinformation has also been exposed, and increasingly even during the Covid-19 era.

A recent study by NewsGuard, an organisation that sorts websites by credibility, indicates that sites publishing coronavirus misinformation had received “more than 142 times the engagement” of the World Health Organisation and the Centre for Disease Control, but shockingly, most of these engagements were for posts that had nothing to do with the virus.

In the wake of the pandemic, Facebook built a Covid-19 information centre within its app that houses authoritative information from health officials and governments. The centre, which is now accessible in more than30 countries in Africa, exists at the top of everyone’s Facebook app and so far, more than two billion people have been directed to it.

With the rising cases of misinformation, it was necessary for Facebook to put in place measures to limit the spread of falsehoods around the pandemic. As a rule, Facebook does not allow content that puts people’s lives at imminent risk of physical harm. Any hoaxes like those that encouraged the consumption of disinfectants as a cure for Covid-19 have automatically been taken down. With the help of independent local fact-checkers, Facebook has been able to limit this kind of misinformation.

To date, more than 4,000 pieces of content related to Covid-19, which are false, have been marked resulting in more than 40 million warning labels being seen across Facebook’s services. This has helped to dissuade a majority of people from clicking on marked content. Facebook’s WhatsApp reduced the number of times that highly forwarded messages can be forwarded in a bid to limit the harmful misinformation around Covid-19.

Recent collaborative efforts with regional governments has seen Facebook avail several of it’s tools on a free-to-use basis in order to provide the public with access to accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date information about the virus. For instance, the Whatsapp Business API, which now allows people to get answers to the most common questions about Covid-19 from local health authorities.

Besides governments, Facebook has also partnered with health agencies and NGOs that are actively using its platforms to share accurate information about the situation. WHO and other authoritative sources have been moved to the top of search, especially on Instagram so that people can easily find the most accurate information.

Facebook also provided educational pop-ups on top of search results such that a search for coronavirus on Facebook leads one to a pop-up that directs them to the WHO or their local health authority for the latest information. The rapid spread of the virus has seen people relying heavily on social apps to stay connected with those they care about where they cannot be together due to the pandemic.

For the first time ever, there are now more than three billion people actively using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger each month. That includes 2.6 billion people using Facebook alone, and more than 2.3 billion people using Facebook’s services every day.

Ms Ndegwa is the Facebook Head of
Public PolicyEast & Horn of Africa