On Tuesday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facebook Inc, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will give free advertisements to World heath Organisation (WHO) as it seeks to fight against the misinformation about the Coronavirus, its risks, and how to react to it.
Zuckerberg, in a Facebook post, said, “We’re giving the WHO as many free ads as they need for their coronavirus response along with other in-kind support,”.
Users who will search for Coronavirus on Facebook will see a “pop-up” which will lead the users to WHO or his/ her local “Health Authority” for the latest information, he said in the post.
Also Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Symptoms And How To Stay Protected From The Virus
He also said that in the countries where WHO has reported person-to-person transmission of the virus, it’ll be now visible in the News Feed of that country’s user.
Zuckerberg said that Facebook is removing the “false claims and conspiracy theories” which are flagged by the leading health organisations of the globe to help people stay safe from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Not just this, Facebook will also block the people from running advertisements on its platform which are using this situation for their gains, saying “We’re also blocking people from running ads that try to exploit the situation — for example, claiming that their product can cure the disease”.
In February, the company had said that it will ban the ads for products which claim to cure and or work as remedies for the Coronavirus outbreak.
Zuckerberg said that the company has joined hands with “national ministries of health and organisations like WHO, CDC (Centers for Disease Control), and UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund, which was formerly called United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund)” to help these organisations release timely, and accurate information on the Coronavirus.
Facebook will not only give support but also “millions more in ad credits” to many other organisations.
The novel virus COVID-19 is believed to have originated from China in December 2019 and has spread o over 70 countries since then. The virus has infected close to 1,00,000 people and has claimed over 3,000 lives till now.
Other social media platforms, too, are taking initiatives to improve their coverage of this virus, for example, when a person searches for “coronavirus” on Pinterest, it takes the users to a curated web-page filled with info-graphics from WHO. Additionally, WHO has launched an account on TikTok in the end days of last week.
Check the post here:
