COVID-19 is known as a Coronavirus from started in China and spread all over the world, and it announced as a pandemic by WHO, which made people experience self-quarantined situations in their own homes. As the virus getting over our daily life, it is also affecting the social media services that people are easy to approach.
Like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social services, they are bringing some bright and dark sides of itself about COVID-19.
Bright side
- Voluntary social media webpages.
- The Government and Public Health experts are joining medical involvement.
Dark side
- Rumors and misinformation are getting worse and spreading quickly
On the bright side, some voluntary developers made COVID-19 critical information related webpages to bring it to the public. These webpages contain general knowledge of the virus, official announcements, top news, and even the pathway of the confirmed virus-infected patients. Not only voluntary developers but also official public health governmental webpages and medical experts sourced webpages are launched to deliver the appropriate and accurate information to the public. However, there are rumors and mislead information are keep spreading around the people as fake news. Those rumors are getting worse and interrupt the government’s supports. Social media is working well currently, but the users should actively distinguish the credible source and faked rumors in this chaotic period.
Ref.
Volkin, S. (2020, March 27). Social media fuels spread of COVID-19 information-and misinformation. Retrieved from https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/27/mark-dredze-social-media-misinformation/