Image Source: South China Morning Post

Recently, a virus –Coronavirus– has spread widely between numerous countries. Starting from Wuhan, China. Everyone is panicking about the spread of incorrect information. Although precaution procedures are taken, however, the spread of misleading information is what causes people to panic.

Social media is an essential part of everyone’s life nowadays. So, whatever your purpose to use it, you are a social media user exposed to different news and information,  not necessarily true.

As reported there are 3.80 billion users of social media worldwide and Instagram is one of the most popular social platforms worldwide, especially among young adults. It is reported that there are one billion active users monthly.

Bearing in mind the role social media plays in the news and information distribution and especially Instagram’s popularity. Instagram’s first key focus is information accuracy. The social platform has taken action to prevent the spread of misleading information about the COVID-19. 

Instagram says it’s working to remove “known harmful misinformation related to COVID-19″, along with highlighting links to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and local health authorities whenever someone taps on a hashtag related to COVID-19.

It is meaningful what Instagram does and its efforts to inhibit the misinformation to spread through its social network and pursuing enhanced solutions to assist.

Over and above that, Instagram’s also fact-checking potentially misleading posts, blocking and restricting hashtags that are being used to spread misinformation.

This conscious process is also aligned with Facebook’s ban on any ads that could exploit the situation. Not only that but Facebook separately announced a ban on all ads and commerce listings for medical face masks.