A group of scientists at Facebook revealed to New York Times who requested funding to develop a data analysis tool at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The idea was to measure the number of Facebook users receiving misinformation about Covid. The request was rejected.

According to the professionals (who were not identified), Facebook executives received a project for a tool that would measure how many Facebook users saw false or misleading information, but the initiative did not go ahead due to the costs of its creation. In addition, the social network could better understand users' habits to identify when false or misleading information is shared.

According to professionals, the development time for this tool would be approximately one year.

Social network is the target of criticism

Facebook is considered the main source of misinformation about Covid-19 in the United States. In a recent report released by the national health department, it was found that the main social networks could do more to combat fake news posts against Covid-19 vaccines. In addition, the American intelligence department has identified that around 80% of all Facebook posts containing misinformation about the coronavirus were made by just 12 accounts.

This finding led US President Joe Biden to declare that social media was “killing people” because of this omission. The statement did not go down well with social media executives and the president. ended up going back on the statement. In a response published in the New York Times, Facebook said: “The suggestion that we have not dedicated resources to combating Covid-19 misinformation and supporting the vaccine rollout is simply not supported by the facts.”

The facts to which the company refers are the partnerships established by Facebook with American universities to identify the vaccination rate of users on its networks, in addition to having created mechanisms for fact checking for Instagram.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Business Insider

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