COVID-19 Brought Scrutiny of Social Media Platforms, the Capitol Attacks Showed the Urgency

While the attack on the US Capitol brought the danger of disinformation spread on social media into focus, the COVID-19 “infodemic” had already made clear the need for policy responses.

Considering the speed and the truly global nature of COVID-19 disinformation, international organisations quickly framed the issue as one requiring a concerted response. As the United Nations and the World Health Organization have appealed to governments and international organisations to provide accurate COVID-19 information and combat mis- and disinformation, many have taken action. The UN Department of Global Communications launched the “Verified” initiative with the aim of “flooding the digital space with facts.” The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), based at the Poynter Institute, formed the #CoronaVirusFacts alliance in January 2020, bringing together more than 100 fact checkers worldwide. On some occasions, private companies have stepped in, with Internet giant Facebook partnering with IFCN to provide “flash grants” of $50,000 to fact checkers from the #CoronaVirusFacts alliance. WhatsApp funded IFCN to set up a free chatbot with a database of fact checked COVID-19 related claims.

The European Union has funded a number of projects to counter disinformation related to COVID-19 under its Horizon 2020 programme and the European External Action Service (EEAS) published five analytical reports on the topic.

Confronted with a wave of mis- and disinformation, governments had to quickly figure out ways to fight back and provide their citizens with facts about the pandemic throughout 2020. An OECD study found that governments in Australia, France, Italy and Latvia, among others, set up channels and chatbots on Telegram and WhatsApp while others, including Greece and Finland, ran more traditional helplines. A number of countries, including Canada and Korea, provided data on COVID-19 via their open data government platforms.

Governments have realised the importance of coordinating communication, with the UK, Austria and Belgium placing dedicated counter-disinformation units in charge. Some others, including Australia, France and Portugal have established their health ministries or scietific agencies as their lead communicators on the topic. Both approaches have their merits — taking decisions on communications at the central government level helps speed and coordination. Putting scientists and health administrators in charge of communication may improve trust — Edelman polled in 11 countries in Spring 2020, finding trust in government and experts to be at an all-time high, rising some 10% since January 2020.

And finally how are technology companies responding to the challenge? Google is taking steps to counter vaccine-related misinformation by providing information panels on COVID-19 vaccines and their local availability as part of its search results. Alphabet-owned YouTube has also been removing videos that carry information about vaccines contradicting the consensus of the health authorities.

In December, Facebook announced that it will follow up the deletion of misinformation with sending personalised notifications to users who had interacted with the content. Under the new policy, users receive a screenshot of the original content, with information on when and how they have interacted with it, and explanations why the information is false. They are also given options such as “unsubscribing” from the group that originally posted the content or visiting a page with facts about COVID-19. Previously, Facebook was sending a general warning without reference to the specific content.

Twitter also updated its content moderation policy in December, announcing that it will start removing “the most harmful misleading information” and label Tweets that contain “potentially misleading information” about vaccines. Twitter also made use of its principles on world leaders using the platform, hiding Tweets from Donald Trump claiming COVID-19 was “less lethal” than seasonal flu and from Brasilian President Bolsonaro who questioned quarantine policies.

Of course, all of the policy moves are coming under fresh scrutiny following the attack on the US Capitol, both in the US, where Senators threatened to come back “with a vengeance”, and in the EU where leaders have expressed growing concern over the concentration of power by internet platforms.