Fight BS Coronavirus on Your Facebook News Feed
If you get news from Facebook, this is the number one problem. Why? Well, it will take a pandemic response effort to get people to stop sharing nonsense on Facebook. And you see how well our response to the pandemic is going …
I know you are smart and discerning, and of course you are not spreading fake science on Facebook to the delight of all your friends. But I’m also sure you have friends or family who still think a government conspiracy or, I don’t know, 5G cellular technology caused COVID-19. And while they can be easily silenced by rolling their eyes and 30 days of sleep , it only removes the symptom, not the cause.
Facebook will soon be introducing its own complementary anti-stupid cure. If a user has shared or interacted with malicious messages related to the Coronavirus on the service – highlighting the “harmful” part, since the post must be able to cause “immediate physical harm” in order to meet the criteria – Facebook will publish post on their news feeds to try to direct them to more legitimate news sources.
What’s disappointing is that Facebook doesn’t highlight which messages the contributing user triggered the notification, and why the message was flagged as fake. Instead, you will receive a generic message that looks like this:
If you come across this post in your feed, know that you need to step up your game and be a little more skeptical about what you read and what you share on social media. But I also understand if you’re struggling to find good information; not even the best auditors can handle the sheer amount of crowned bullshit that is being shoveled all over the place.
If I were you and face the daily stupidity of Facebook, I would add to the bookmark site that Facebook plans to use this peddler of nonsense, and would add it as a comment, the next time you see something dangerously idiotic in their stream.
There is no doubt that the postmaster will react angrily to your promotional information coming from the “untrustworthy” World Health Organization – god, what an agenda they should have – but you are at least ahead of the general notice they most likely I will see you soon. Who knows, you might even give them new perspectives. It could have happened.
Otherwise, do what I do – install Social Fixer in your browser and create a filter that hides everything coronavirus-related from your feed. Between that and my timeline hack a few weeks ago, Facebook has become a lot calmer and nicer for me these days. A quarantine life is not all bad.