WhatsApp launches fact-checking service in Italy to counter fake news about COVID-19

So you know how the older generation are always sharing ‘news’ on WhatsApp without fact-checking them first? Yeah, we know the struggle – and apparently so does Italy; but of course, the situation there is much more dire. Well, to counteract this, Facebook Inc. (who owns WhatsApp) has launched a service in the country to verify any information that passes through the chatting app. The company is working with Facta, an Italian fact-checking service to analyze all content being circulated by the app’s users. Being the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe with 83,000 positive cases and almost 14,000 thousand deaths, Italy is experiencing one of the worst cases of the pandemic to date. The local government had ordered a lockdown across the nation and that has seen the rise of the usage of WhatsApp. Reuters reports that the rise in traffic also generates an increase of hoaxes, created by people who’re either misinformed or intentionally trying to stir the pot. With this new fact-checking measure, people can send content to this service to be analyzed and have whatever it is debunked. Although the outbreak isn’t as bad in Malaysia, WhatsApp hoaxes and fake news are rife and a similar service would do us a world of good right now – heck, it would be good even after things return to normal.

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