Coronavirus: Call for apps to get fake Covid-19 news button
Social networks need a dedicated button to flag up bogus coronavirus-related posts, an advocacy group has said.
The Campaign for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said the apps had "missed a trick" in combating the problem.
The call coincides with a study that indicates 46% of internet-using adults in the UK saw false or misleading information about the virus in the first week of the country's lockdown.
Ofcom said the figure rose to 58% among 18-to-24-year-olds.
The communications watchdog said the most common piece of false advice seen during the week beginning 23 March was the claim that drinking more water could flush out an infection.
Incorrect claims that Covid-19 could be alleviated by gargling salt water or avoiding cold food and drink were also widely seen.
The watchdog intends to survey 2,000 people each week to help track the issue.
On Wednesday, the Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden, had a virtual meeting with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube's owner, Google.
During the call the firms committed themselves to:
developing further technical solutions to combat misinformation and disinformation on platforms
weekly reporting on related misinformation trends
improving out-of-hours coverage and response rates to harmful misinformation
providing messaging to users about how to identify and respond to misinformation
'Barrier to action'
Tech firms have stepped up their efforts to tackle fake reports in recent days.
This includes WhatsApp limiting the number of chats users can send popular messages to at one time and YouTube banning videos that make false claims about 5G being linked to Covid-19.
But CCDH says the public needs an easier way to flag misinformation about the disease than at present.
The lack of such a dedicated button creates a "barrier to action", the group's chief executive, Imran Ahmed, told the BBC, discouraging users from hunting through the options to report offending posts.
At present:
Twitter says two options are suitable for reporting coronavirus misinformation - "suspicious or spam" and "abusive or harmful". But clicking on one asks the user to narrow it down to more specific categories, none of which match misinformation or conspiracy theories
YouTube suggests using its "harmful dangerous acts" category, which has options for drug abuse and self-injury but not misinformation
TikTok has a spam category, but no clear category for misinformation
Facebook does have a "false news" category for reports, but Mr Ahmed says that is "quite different from misinformation". It is also a politically charged term, he says, and "no-one knows what it means any more"
The CCDH chief is also concerned that users are often encouraged to block or mute the reported accounts.
That means "you don't see the reality, which is that they might delete a post, but very rarely delete accounts," he said.
