Rep. Adam Schiff sent a letter today to Google, YouTube, and Twitter. The letter urges the platforms to explicitly notify users when they’ve engaged with misinformation about the coronavirus.
He wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. He told them it’s not enough to remove or downgrade harmful or misleading content about the pandemic. But it’s critical to ensure that users who saw the content have access to correct information as well.
Removing or downgrading harmful content before users engage with it is not always possible, Schiff said.
Actions Taken
Facebook has announced plans to display messages to users who have engaged with harmful coronavirus-related misinformation. This is in reference to information that has since been removed from the platform. Also to connect them with resources from the World Health Organization.
Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, outlined its plans for handling coronavirus misinformation posts in a blog. They will start to show messages in News Feed to people who have liked or reacted to such posts.
They will show a message to anyone who has commented on harmful misinformation about COVID-19 that they have since removed.
These messages will connect people to coronavirus myths debunked by the WHO. Those include the ones they’ve removed from the platform for leading to imminent physical harm.
Facebook also began putting the correct information into people’s News Feeds. It labels the information with a message that reads “Help friends and family avoid false information about COVID-19.” This is without necessarily reminding the user they were duped by said false information.
Then, it invites them to share a link to the WHO’s myth-busting site. It also provides a button that will take the user to the site directly.
The goal of this approach is to make people less defensive about the fact that they may be wrong. And to try to smuggle some good information into their brains without making them feel dumb about it.
YouTube and Twitter Can Potentially Follow Suit
Both YouTube nor Twitter haven’t clarified how they want to implement the same notification settings. However, they’ve taken similar steps toward actively moderating coronavirus in their platforms.
Recently, YouTube announced that it plans to add informational panels with information from its fact-checkers to videos in the US. It is an expansion of a program it launched in India and Brazil last year.
Since early February, they’ve removed thousands of videos violating the COVID-19 misinformation policies. These include content that disputes the existence or transmission of COVID-19 as described by local health authorities.
Or content that promotes medically unsubstantiated methods to prevent or cure COVID-19 in place of seeking medical treatment. They’ve seen over 20 billion impressions for coronavirus-related videos and searches on their information panels so far.
Twitter introduced its coronavirus content policies earlier this month. It requires users to remove tweets with content that includes misinformation about coronavirus treatments. Misleading content meant to look like they were from authorities were also removed.
The microblogging platform also updated its policies to encompass tweets that may incite people to action and cause widespread panic. These include posts that cause social unrest or large-scale disorder, such as burning 5G towers.
YouTube and Twitter both have the framework, potentially, to build a notification process similar to how FB had done it. But neither has announced plans to do so just yet.
Twitter received Schiff’s letter and was in regular contact with the congressman and his staff on these issues.
Challenges Faced
But the practical challenges of notifying users about misinformation become complicated when the president is the one spreading it.
President Trump suggested last week that bleach and ultraviolet light were possible treatments for people with the virus. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube threaded the needle.
It said since the president didn’t direct people to try the very dangerous treatment options. However, they wouldn’t remove posts that included his statements.
Schiff recognized the complexities that misinformation presents to online platforms. He wrote that they all grapple with this unprecedented health situation. Furthermore, he hopes they will consider this suggestion for keeping users better informed.
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