With the coronavirus pandemic, people are eager for information or anything that concerns the virus.
With the many sources out there, crucial information can get lost among the noises.
To counter this, The Facebook-owned instant messaging service WhatsApp announced the WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub, made in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
The initiative is to provide simple, actionable guidance for health workers, educators, community leaders, nonprofits, local governments and local businesses that rely on WhatsApp for communication.
The hub also offers general tips and resources for users around the world, to help reduce the spread of hoaxes, rumors, misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
As quoted in a post on UNDP, Achim Steiner, its administrator said that:
"Partnerships with private sector companies like WhatsApp will help get this vital, real time information from the World Health Organization and local health officials to billions of users around the globe."
WhatsApp has previously partnered with a number of health ministries and non-governmental organizations to provide factual information to users through text messaging in countries like Singapore, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia.
The next announcement, is a $1 million donation to the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
The money is to help IFCN support fact-checking for the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, which spans more than 100 local organizations in at least 45 countries.
Since 2019, WhatsApp has worked to bring over a fact-checking organizations directly onto WhatsApp so they can crowdsource and report on rumors that may be misleading to users of various messaging services, including WhatsApp or SMS. This fund should help expand the reach of IFCN certified fact-checking organizations to ensure that local communities in their respective countries are aware of harmful misleading information that may have gone viral.
According to Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp:
"We are also pleased to be able to partner with the Poynter Institute to help grow the amount of fact-checking organizations on WhatsApp and to support their life saving work to debunk rumors. We will also continue to work directly with health ministries around the world for them to provide updates right within WhatsApp."
“The timely donation from WhatsApp will help the fact-checks published by the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance to reach wider audiences and, in consequence, help people sort facts from fiction during this avalanche of information that WHO called an 'infodemic',” said Baybars Orsek, Director of IFCN. “The International Fact-Checking Network also looks forward to discovering ways to understand the spread of health related hoaxes on WhatsApp in different formats and to make tools available for fact-checkers to detect and debunk misinformation on the messaging app.”