Expose Coronavirus Hoaxes With This WhatsApp Bot
To slow the seemingly endless spread of COVID-19 misinformation on social media, Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has launched a WhatsApp chatbot to help you detect coronavirus hoaxes . The bot cross-references questions submitted by users with a database of over 100 independent verifiers to help you convince your friends and loved ones that their opinions are terrible and wrong.
How to Use the Official Coronavirus Fact Checker on WhatsApp
The IFCN bot is officially approved by WhatsApp and is available to all users of the service, regardless of which platform you use: Android , iOS , Windows or Mac , etc.
The bot so far only works in English, but WhatsApp also translates it into Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish. (It may take several days for these languages to become available.)
To call the bot:
- Open this link, then click send to automatically open the bot in WhatsApp, or open the WhatsApp app and save “+1 (727) 2912606” as a contact.
- Start a conversation by sending a “hello” message to the bot. He will respond with instructions on how to use the service.
- Please answer again with ‘1’ to initiate COVID-19 fact checking.
- Now you can reply with a question or submit a keyword related to the topic you want to ask. The bot will then respond with whatever relevant information it has. For example, a text message “surface” will return information about how long the virus is supposed to survive on most surfaces, which can be up to 72 hours on resistant surfaces such as stainless steel or plastic, according to a study cited by the IFCN bot.
[ TechCrunch ]