Facebook to weed out posts spreading misinformation about coronavirus

Facebook has started its drive to weed out misleading posts spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus.

According to the New York Post, the company is aggressively trying to remove posts that claim to offer the cure for this disease, for instance, drinking bleach, as few posts suggested.

Facebook's head of health, Kang-Xing Jin wrote in a Facebook blog: "We will also block or restrict hashtags used to spread misinformation on Instagram, and are conducting proactive sweeps to find and remove as much of this content as we can."

Bogus posts flagged by health officials would be taken down by Facebook, especially the claims that suggest people to not seek professional medical help.

In this instance, Facebook has made a bold move of curtailing misinformation as it was earlier bashed for allowing the propagation of false advertisements by certain political campaigns.

The third-party fact-checkers would determine the posts that are misleading, following which, Facebook would send notifications to warn the defaulters.

New York Post cited The Daily Beast, according to which, QAnon, a group of conspiracy theorists went around on the internet telling people to chug down "Miracle Mineral Solution" to protect themselves from coronavirus. The solution turned out to be a "dangerous bleach" that could potentially kill anyone who consumes it.