The Pandemic's 'Infodemic' and Facebook's Face-Saving Response

摘要

In the midst of a global pandemic, we are simultaneously experiencing a massive global infodemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines this as "an over-abundance of information - some accurate and some not - that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it." On social media, misinformation often is shared at accelerated rates. In early April, approximately one-third of social media users reported seeing misinformation about COVID-19 on social media in the United States, Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom in a study conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.