Facebook to notify users who liked, commented, or reacted to COVID-19 misinfo and guide them to WHO resources, as report finds debunked claims on the platform

Users who have liked, shared or commented on posts with false claims will be directed to WHO's ‘myth busters’ page

The Guardian 2020-04-17 Julia Carrie Wong

Context & Ripple Effects

Facebook's COVID-19 response has been escalating since early March, when Zuckerberg paired free ads for health organizations with misinfo flagging, followed by an information center pinned atop every user's feed. What changes now is the direction of travel: instead of only labeling bad content upstream, Facebook is going after the audience after the fact.

First-order effects

Users who liked, commented on, or reacted to posts carrying debunked coronavirus claims will be pushed notifications and routed to the WHO's 'myth busters' page — a correction aimed at people who already amplified the content, not just at future viewers.
The move implicitly concedes that engagement itself spreads misinfo: the April study finding 24% of rated-false COVID content still live without warning labels on Facebook showed labeling alone was leaving most of the audience untouched.

Second-order effects

Twitter and YouTube look worse by comparison in the same study — 59% and 27% of false items respectively stayed up unlabeled — so both face pressure to adopt comparable engage-then-correct mechanisms rather than defend label-only approaches.
The WHO gains a distribution channel it does not have to build: Facebook's notification flow makes a public-health agency dependent on platform reach for counter-messaging during the pandemic.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds, moderation shifts from policing content to auditing engagement histories — platforms treating every like and share as a deliverable correction, which later hardened into outright removal of debunked vaccine claims by December.
Retroactive notification creates a precedent regulators can point to when arguing platforms know who engaged with harmful content and therefore can be held accountable for reaching them.

The trend: Platform content moderation is evolving from labeling false posts to actively re-contacting the users who engaged with them, with public-health authorities supplying the corrective messaging.

Discussion

Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Facebook will start nudging users who have “liked” coronavirus hoaxes
@guyro Guy Rosen on x
New updates on our work to limit COVID-19 misinformation and connect people to reliable information: we've now directed over 2B people to health authority resources through our COVID-19 Info Center and pop-ups with >350M people clicking to learn more. https://about.fb.com/... 1/
@johnpaczkowski John Paczkowski on x
Now do the same thing for climate crisis denial https://twitter.com/...
@adrianweckler Adrian Weckler on x
This is a fascinating twist. Facebook will identify everyone who ‘likes’ or comments on a post with debunked Covid-19 content. It will then show them links to WHO facts on debunked myths. This will be cheered by most battling misinfo. But what power. https://www.independent.ie/..…
@newsview100 @newsview100 on x
@EPro @VentureBeat @Avaaz Facebook is the biggest distributor of misinformation and disinformation on the planet.
@ekadarville Eka Darville on x
@Avaaz @Facebook Yeah there is a word for this, it's called censorship. And it's a damn Slippery slope. Stop hiding behind a cute hashtag
@slpng_giants Stay At Home Giants on x
Ignoring the politics of the situation, any outlet that's doing *FACT-CHECKING* for @Facebook should not be emailing people for quotes to create a story. It appears that's what the Daily Caller is trying to do here. How does @factchecknet justify this org being certified? https:/…
@woodfordindk Shane Woodford on x
Or you could just take down the posts and ban the people that propagate them.....but whatevs https://twitter.com/...
@daithaigilbert David Gilbert on x
@Avaaz Here are some of the bogus claims Facebook allowed on its platform and be seen by hundreds of millions of users: — Black people are resistant to #COVID19 — Wild Garlic can cure coronavirus — So can hairdryers — So can chlorine dioxide https://www.vice.com/...
@daithaigilbert David Gilbert on x
So you're going to see a lot of headlines about #Facebook's new efforts to combat #coronavirus misinformation. What you won't hear is that the company were forced into making these changes after @Avaaz found their current efforts were so inadequate https://www.vice.com/...
@malwarejake Jake Williams on x
This is outstanding - props to Facebook! https://www.vox.com/...
@pkreissel Philip Kreiel on x
Good News, @Facebook will now show people who have been exposed to misinformation a factcheck by the @WHO, this has been a central demand of disinformation researchers. At the same time @YouTube is completely failing to tackle it's problem with disinfo. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@rowlsmanthorpe Rowland Manthorpe on x
Facebook have made this change after a campaign by @Avaaz - but as you'll see, it hasn't gone all the way and directly challenged anyone about misinformation It's interesting to compare Avaaz's proposal. Much stronger. Would it be more effective or would it enrage people? https:/…
@bradhoylman Senator Brad Hoylman on x
I'm always happy to see ANY steps by Facebook to address health misinformation—but this crisis should be making clear that dealing with this speech after it's already been posted and spread is a deadly mistake. https://twitter.com/...
@pnhoward Phil Howard on x
Interesting move from Facebook, possibly the first time a big tech firm is reaching out to people who have been exposed to fake news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/... #LieMachines
@markscott82 Mark Scott on x
Now free to read: https://www.politico.eu/... Comes as @Avaaz found that 41% of fake posts that had been debunked by fact-checkers remained on @Facebook even when company was told about them. https://twitter.com/...
@timoreilly @timoreilly on x
About time! I've always thought it odd that everyone accepts companies nudging their users to increase profit, but considers it wrong to nudge them to increase their own well-being! https://twitter.com/...
@epro Emil Protalinski on x
“Despite Facebook's efforts to crack down on false coronavirus information, those posts were shared 1.7 million times and viewed 117 million times, according to @Avaaz.” https://venturebeat.com/...
@ahowardbrowne Adonica HowardBrowne on x
Facebook put coronavirus misinformation warnings on about 40 million posts in March “When people saw the company's warning labels, 95% of the time they opted not to view whatever article or video was posted.” 😳 #pleasestartthinkingforyourself https://theweek.com/...
@schneider Michael Schneider on x
This is a good move. Why can't they do the same with political content? https://twitter.com/...
@daithaigilbert David Gilbert on x
Here is what FB's version looks like (on the left) and what Avaaz had envisioned. FB's tool looks an awful lot like the one people already see in their News Feeds. https://www.vice.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@haso_jan @haso_jan on x
Fantastic work by @Avaaz. They got #Facebook to agree notifying its users who engaged with fake content about Coronavirus with their new report studying the extent of disinformation on the platform. They've been advocating for this feature for years now. https://www.bbc.com/...
@daithaigilbert David Gilbert on x
Facebook is only now implementing a tool that Avaaz has been calling for for years. FB says it will retroactively alert users when they click on, like or share misinformation. But Facebook's implementation is unlikely to make much difference https://www.vice.com/...
@karennax Nax Lozano on x
Nuevo reporte de @Avaaz muestra que Facebook es el epicentro de la desinformación relativa al #COVID19. El informe ha ocasionado que FB tome medidas inmediatas para desmentir #bulos pero aún hay mucho por hacer #correctTheRecord https://twitter.com/...
@gatewaypundit Jim Hoft on x
DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH: Facebook to Alert Users of ‘Coronavirus Misinformation’ and Delete Posts Based on the Unreliable World Health Organization @CassandraRules https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/ ... via @gatewaypundit
@suzannenossel Suzanne Nossel on x
If nothing else @WHO's position as a key source of accurate COVID information makes clear the folly of withholding US funding from the organization. Or at least that would be true if our govt cared about providing citizens with accurate information. https://www.nbcnews.com/....
@alexhern Hern on x
I actually really like the language Facebook is using here: *not* saying “you were wrong” but saying “hey! Would you like to share this link to help friends and family who may be wrong?” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@mosseri Adam Mosseri on x
We've directed over two billion people to resources about COVID-19 from health authorities across Instagram and Facebook. https://twitter.com/...
@joetidy Joe Tidy on x
NEW: Facebook will now warn users who've been exposed to coronavirus misinformation. The retroactive alerts mean any users who've read or shared false content will be contacted. It comes as @Avaaz says Fb ‘sits at the epicentre of coronavirus misinfo’. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...
@avaaz @avaaz on x
New Avaaz research shows: @facebook is an epicentre of the #Coronavirus #infodemic. Facebook has now announced they will alert all users who engage with this harmful content, an important step ... But @facebook can and must do more 👉(thread) https://secure.avaaz.org/... https://t…
@rowlsmanthorpe Rowland Manthorpe on x
There's no doubt coronavirus misinformation is still going viral, esp in languages other than English - but never been clear corrections would stop that Avaaz commissioned a study to look into this. The results are quite striking https://secure.avaaz.org/... https://twitter.com/.…
@ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x
https://secure.avaaz.org/... Damning report by @Avaaz on Facebook's failure to combat virus misinformation effectively - “It can take up to 22 days for the platform to downgrade and issue warning labels on false content”
@geoffrobinson Geoff on x
@sarafischer @jackshafer I mean the news media is most likely seriously compromised by the CCP. And after Epstein, anyone who trusts them is ignorant or daft. You add them beclowning themselves with the difference between Kavanaugh and Biden... that's just gasoline on the fire.
@marietjeschaake Marietje Schaake on x
If this data becomes available for research it should help to understand the depth and spread of disinformation through Facebook's mysterious ways ↘️ https://twitter.com/...
@cfarivar Cyrus Farivar on x
Zuck, Nov 2016: “I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves.” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@rowlsmanthorpe Rowland Manthorpe on x
Here's Facebook's statement. “We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook” https://about.fb.com/...
@kgoldshlager Keren on x
Our fact-checking partners have ramped up efforts to fight COVID-19 misinformation, and we're excited to share more about the impact of this work. In March, we displayed warnings on about 40 million posts related to COVID-19 on Facebook, based on around 4,000 fact-check articles.…
@dpfunke Daniel Funke on x
This is really promising news about the impact of Facebook's fact-checking partnership https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jencyjac Jency Jacob on x
In the month of March, FB displayed warnings on about 40 million posts related to COVID-19, based on around 4,000 articles by independent fact-checking partners. When people saw those warning labels, 95% of the time they did not view the original content. https://about.fb.com/...
@journalismfest Journalism Festival on x
Facebook will show a message in the News Feed to people who have liked, reacted or commented on harmful misinformation about COVID-19. These messages will connect people to COVID-19 myths debunked by the WHO https://about.fb.com/...
@doney Doney den Ouden on x
The problem is a lot of people don't trust authorities like the WHO—rightly so in some cases. https://twitter.com/...
@sarafischer Sara Fischer on x
Facebook typically doesn't inform users if they've engage in debunked content, aside from Russian disinformation a while back. My thought bubble: Once it starts doing this, it will be expected moving forward they do this for all kinds of misinformation, including political. https…
@mattnavarra @mattnavarra on x
Facebook adds TWO new features to tackle #Coronavirus misinformation 1/ Informing people who interacted with harmful #COVID19 misinfo about authoritative sources 2/ New ‘Get the Facts’ section in FB's #covid19 Info Center to show fact-checked articles https://about.fb.com/... htt…
@alexvoica Alexandru Voica on x
We're launching new Care reactions on @facebookapp and @Messenger as a way for people to share their support with one another during this unprecedented time. We hope these reactions give people additional ways to show their support during the #COVID19 crisis. https://twitter.com/…
@alexvoica Alexandru Voica on x
On Facebook, we will launch a seventh Reaction alongside the existing six. The new Care Reaction will start rolling out next week globally and you can use it to react to posts, comments, images, videos, or other content on the app and http://facebook.com/ https://twitter.com/...
@brianmanzullo Brian Manzullo on x
Facebook is adding the “hug” reaction to allow you to send virtual hugs on posts & status updates. https://www.freep.com/...
@cschweitz Callie Schweitzer on x
“The new Facebook reaction - an emoji hugging a heart - is intended as shorthand to show caring and solidarity when commenting on a status update, message, photo or video during the coronavirus crisis” https://www.usatoday.com/...
@dmregister @dmregister on x
When even the smallest physical gesture to convey support isn't possible, Facebook is rolling out a new reaction to express caring and compassion. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/ ...
@chrisdancy @chrisdancy on x
STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!! Facebook is installing NEW emotional repsonses! Families everywhere, you have a SEVENTH emotion to use!!!! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@thepeterha @thepeterha on x
WTF CARES ABOUT EMOJIS RN, FACEBOOK?! https://twitter.com/...
@sushubh @sushubh on x
as someone said... some of the most brilliant minds of our times are involved in shit. https://twitter.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x
Check out FB @alexvoica's thread for more info about the new “Care” reaction too 🧵⤵️ https://twitter.com/...

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