WhatsApp has launched an information hub offering guidance on using the service
and reducing the spread of disinformation during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Facebook-owned platform's hub includes tips for those who use the app as
part of their work as well as general users.
Concerns have been raised over the messaging and the amount of disinformation
being spread via the platform, with content harder to trace as messages on the
service are end-to-end encrypted and therefore unreadable to anyone but those
in a conversation.
Previous reports have suggested misleading and incorrect information is being
widely forwarded to others on WhatsApp, spreading both inaccurate information
and panic in the process.
The platform has around two billion users worldwide.
WhatsApp said its new Coronavirus Information Hub would provide guidance for
those in the health and education sector, as well as other businesses and
organisations which use the service for their work.
It has been launched in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO),
Unicef and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and will include
information from those organisations. The firm said the hub would also include
"general tips and resources" for users around the world to help reduce the
spread of rumours and instead connect them with accurate health information.
Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, said: "We know that our users are reaching out
on WhatsApp more than ever at this time of crisis, whether it's to friends and
loved ones, doctors to patients, or teachers to students.
"We wanted to provide a simple resource that can help connect people at this
time."
The messaging platform has also announced a $1m (â¬910,000) donation to the
Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
The donation will support the IFCN's #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance programme,
which fact-checks claims about the outbreak and includes more than 100
organisations working in more than 45 countries.
"We are also pleased to be able to partner with the Poynter Institute to help
grow the amount of fact-checking organisations on WhatsApp and to support their
life-saving work to debunk rumours," Mr Cathcart said.
"We will also continue to work directly with health ministries around the world
for them to provide updates right within WhatsApp."
Baybars Orsek, director of the IFCN said: "The timely donation from WhatsApp
will help the fact-checks published by the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance to reach
wider audiences and, in consequence, help people sort facts from fiction during
this avalanche of information that WHO called an 'infodemic'.
"The International Fact-Checking Network also looks forward to discovering ways
to understand the spread of health-related hoaxes on WhatsApp in different
formats and to make tools available for fact-checkers to detect and debunk
misinformation on the messaging app."
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