Medium's opaque moderation of user-created content related to COVID-19 has allowed misinfo to spread, making it harder to tell fact from fiction on the platform
The platform empowers voices — and misinformation — On March 20th, an article about the novel coronavirus started to spread. Tweets: @zoeschiffer , @reckless , @niemanlab , and @knguyen Tweets: Zoe Schiffer / @zoeschiffer : Coronavirus has brought out the best and worst in Medium. The blogging platform is now home to some of the top stories about COVID-19, as well as a ton of misinformation. In certain ways, this is Medium working as designed: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : Medium's coronavirus moderation strategy is opaque and can lead to conflict with the traditional journalism the company does — leading to more controversy than ever. @ZoeSchiffer reports: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... @niemanlab : “The decision to curate some content—to hire professional journalists and promote verified articles—has made it harder to tell fact from fiction on the platform...In some ways, this is the promise of Medium: to make the work of amateurs look professional.” https://www.theverge.com/... Kevin Nguyen / @knguyen : Medium did not meaningfully answer any of Zoe's questions about how it handles COVID-19 misinformation https://www.theverge.com/...