Global tech giant, Google, on Monday said it was ensuring that credible sources of information were elevated on “search engine” to tackle misinformation on Coronavirus.
Google UK Public Policy Manager, Alina Dimofte, made this known during a virtual meeting on Google Meet with the theme: “Trust, Safety, COVID-19 and the Fight Against Misinformation.”
Dimofte said Google was supporting these efforts by ensuring that information from credible sources were elevated on search, while misleading information across all its products were detected and removed to prevent a potential spread.
She said as the world fights against the spread of COVID-19, interest in the disease continued to rise around the world, giving rise to misinformation.
According to her, many organisations and individuals are lending their support to the World Health Organization and governments around the world to help curb the spread of false information about the disease online.
She said: “For every fake news article, video or social media post published, there are credible ones available to debunk their claims and present the right information.
“Google is supporting these efforts by ensuring that information from credible sources is elevated on Search while misleading information across all its products is detected and removed to prevent a potential spread.
“On YouTube, where many conspiracy theorists and misinformation merchants target to share videos with false information about COVID-19, all videos about the disease that violate the platform’s community guidelines, including those that encourage dangerous cures and health risks, are immediately taken down.”
According to Dimofte, Google is also preventing advertisements with harmful medical claims.
She said with the exception of COVID-19-related advertisements from government and NGOs, healthcare providers and other authorities, “Google does not allow advertisements that capitalize on sensitive situations such as the coronavirus pandemic.”
She said there were also community guidelines that tackled volatile content and also prohibited dangerous content even before the COVID-19.
Dimofte said with the lockdown and working remotely, there was a huge increase in cyber security threat leveraging on the COVID-19, which Google had identified and helped different government to tackle.
According to her, Google has been 99.9 per cent successful in stalling the cyber security threat.
She said to spread the right information in addition to the combined efforts to ensure the prioritisation of credible information, government and NGOs across the world launched COVID-19 campaigns.
The campaign, aimed at creating awareness on physical distancing, included Stay Home, Stay Safe, Flatten The Curve, Stay Home, Save Lives and Take Responsibility.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Google’s other means of spreading the right information around COVID-19 include Google Maps and Google News Initiative.