User:Mileskellam/Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media

Fighting an Infodemic[edit]
COVID-19 has increased the World Health Organizations (WHO) usage of social media as well. The platform WHO Information Network for Epidemics was created after COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency. The 20 person staff work to provide evidence-based answers to combat rumors found across platforms and ensure any “coronavirus” search across social media platforms, as well as Google, directs them to the WHO website or Center for Disease Control providing reliable information.

On 18 January 2021, the UK Parliament, in the presence of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, held a session to combat misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic on social networking and Internet media platforms. The session had a panel of behavioral science experts and another of media representatives of major organizations including, Facebook, Sky News, and Reuters.

The United Nations launched the United Nations Communications Response initiative in April of 2020 with the aim of reducing the spread of misinformation about the pandemic with the stated goal of reducing hate speech and preventing pandemic disinformation and misinformation from causing political polarization online. The United Nations, on May 11 2020, also issued a further Guidance Note on Addressing and Countering Covid-19 related Hate Speech, which further aimed to reduce the problems of hate speech and misinformation online.

Also in May of 2020, the WHO Member States passed a resolution called Resolution WHA73.1. Its stated goals were to get member states to take a more active role in publishing content that informs the public about the pandemic, as well as preventing the spread of misinformation about it that can hurt peoples' ability to respond to the virus. International organizations were also addressed in the same resolution for much of the same reasons, with the WHO intent on preventing the spread of misinformation via technology and the spread of peer reviewed, science-backed academic data to be shown worldwide to inform people of the situation.