WhatsApp: don’t just send information about coronavirus in chats

WhatsApp calls on users not to just share information that is spread about the new corona virus. Hotlines will be established where users can obtain correct information about the virus and its outbreak.

WhatsApp says on a page dedicated to the coronavirus that users should not just forward information to others. “Not everything you send may be true. Verify the facts with trusted official sources and if you’re not sure if something is true, don’t forward it.” According to the chat service, incorrect stories about the virus have been circulating on WhatsApp in recent weeks. For the page and the information, the Facebook subsidiary works together with the World Health Organization WHO, among others.

The page will soon contain numbers of hotlines that users can contact to get correct information about the virus and the outbreak, Techcrunch writes. It is still unclear when the numbers will be on the page.

In addition, WhatsApp is donating a million dollars to the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, which wants to prevent the spread of disinformation about the virus, writes Poynter, initiator of that alliance. There would now be 100 agencies in 45 countries in that alliance. What those are is not clear.