In recent news, Facebook has officially partnered with the Government of Pakistan in order to counter the false news and rumors spread throughout social media in regards to COVID-19 and its respective vaccination. In Pakistan, over 32 million people received proper information from the respective authorities in regards to COVID-19 prevention.
Moreover, Facebook assisted the social media campaigns conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing (DMW). This further extended to the company helping the government increase its engagement rates with the public hence allowing the Ministry of Health to increase its total number of page likes to 470,000. This further allows the government to connect and provide information to its stakeholders.
But with the false news being spread throughout social media through numerous accounts Facebook and the government joined hands to eradicate this so that true and correct information is spread only.
According to Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SPAM) on Health:
“We are appreciative of the support extended by Facebook in our fight against COVID-19. We reached 76% of our target population through our social media messaging campaigns. The pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of using digital tools for transmitting critical health information to citizens and keeping them safe and healthy.”
As of now, Facebook has taken aggressive steps to remove harmful misinformation i.e. up to 16 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram that violated the respective policies of COVID-19.
