CAPE TOWN - Facebook on Monday launched a new campaign in African countries to help people spot fake news on Covid-19 and the vaccines.
The campaign, launched in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) is called ‘Together Against Covid-19 Misinformation’ and was rolled out in English and French.
“Ensuring users are getting authoritative information about Covid-19 vaccines is just some of the vital work we’re doing here at Facebook,” the company’s public policy manager, Aïda Ndiaye, said in a statement.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, we’ll continue working with industry experts and people on our platforms to ensure we’re aggressively tackling misinformation, and giving people additional resources to scrutinise content they see online, helping them decide what to read, trust and share.”
The campaign will be rolled out in South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and will show up on Facebook in a series of graphics with tips to spot false news, Facebook said in a statement.
Last month, Facebook announced a worldwide campaign to promote “authoritative information about Covid-19 vaccines” aimed at working to “remove false vaccine claims, reduce distribution of inaccurate health information, and inform people about effective vaccine delivery”.
According to the latest information on reference website, Worldometer, Africa had 4,306,564 Covid-19 cases on Monday, and 3,857,265 recoveries.
According to the information, of the cases 335,143 were active cases and 3,079 were serious or critical. In Africa, 114,156 people have died due to Covid-19.
African News Agency