How Facebook help us to fight against Coronavirus?
Throughout the years, my view on Facebook has—for the most part—stayed the same. I view Facebook as a necessary evil, a way to connect the world despite being used to spread misinformation.
And while I hold Facebook in low regard, its very existence has become an important tool in the fight against the current coronavirus outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic. I know what you’re thinking, “how can a social media site help us?”
Well, …you’d be surprised.
It’s no secret Facebook harbors troves of misinformation and corruption. The site has experienced its fair share of scandals over it. However, as the saying goes, there’s always a diamond in the rough.
How Facebook inform the masses to fight against Coronavirus?
The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China. While the Chinese government attempted to hide the details of the outbreak and fix the problem before it got out of hand, citizens attempted to tell the outside world all about the outbreak. Unfortunately, that wasn’t easy. See, the citizens of China are restricted access to popular services such as Facebook because the state doesn’t want any unaudited information to come through. Propaganda is a powerful tool only if you control the flow of information.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, however, and the situation in Wuhan proved the saying right once again. Through the use of both proxies and VPNs, citizens were able to connect to Facebook and tell their stories, tales of the unfolding situation in Wuhan and the rest of the country. Though I’m willing to bet many people were connecting with a VPN instead of a Facebook proxy—just my two cents.
Because of these citizens telling the true stories of the situation in Wuhan, the world was able to pick up on how destructive COVID-19 would be and were able to prepare.
The ability to quickly spread important news through Facebook stands to be the best way to inform people about the current situation. In fact, the social media site has been experiencing quite the popularity boom. I know, you wouldn’t think a social media site with over one-billion users could become any more popular, huh?
As it turns out, it definitely can. A report by The New York Times showed a 50% increase in traffic from Facebook to other websites, meaning people clicked links they found on Facebook that redirected them to the main site. This may be because of Facebook’s attitude towards users who read news stories more than the average user, Facebook calling them “Power News Consumers”. Facebook directs more news towards these users since they show a liking for news.
These “Power Consumers” are more likely to share the news too, meaning Facebook is indirectly helping spread news of the outbreak and the events surrounding it. This is how Facebook is helping to fight against Coronavirus (COVID-19) by sharing authentic news.
Furthermore, the report tells us Facebook is experimenting with how it will combat falsified news, and one of the ways in which they’re doing this is by driving traffics towards credible, authoritative sources. Many mainstream news outlets have reported a significant increase in traffic because of Facebook’s new News algorithm. This new algorithm ensures people see credible sources instead of a small-time blog that spreads unfounded conspiracy theories about 5G, fixing one of my main issues with Facebook.
This experiment has proven effective, and many people are becoming more educated in how the COVID-19 outbreak started, how it’s being handled, and the proper precautions needed to avoid it, hence why Facebook has become an important tool during this pandemic.
Conclusion
I’ve had my fair share of problems with Facebook throughout the years. Cambridge Analytica, Mark Zuckerberg’s lack of care for his users’ privacy: this fuels my distrust of the platform.
Credit where credit is due, however; the methods Facebook has taken during this pandemic show the good Facebook can do. Their help during this pandemic means a lot, and I hope this is the start of a new era for the platform.