{"id":347,"date":"2020-04-02T14:45:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T13:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/?p=347"},"modified":"2020-04-02T14:45:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T13:45:32","slug":"african-government-partners-tech-giants-facebook-whatsapp-to-combat-coronavirus-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/african-government-partners-tech-giants-facebook-whatsapp-to-combat-coronavirus-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"African government partners tech giants, Facebook, WhatsApp to combat coronavirus lies"},"content":{"rendered":"
African governments are partnering with technology giants including Facebook and WhatsApp to fight misinformation about coronavirus on social media platforms.<\/p>\n
The need arose as to a way to further curb the spread of the novel virus which is believed could propel the pandemic on the African continent with less-developed healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
A Reuters<\/a> report said South Africa, which has more infections than any other African country, with more than 1,300 confirmed cases, has launched an information service about the coronavirus on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n ALSO READ:\u00a0<\/strong>#COVID19: Spain\u2019s coronavirus death toll tops 10,000<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n In Nigeria, health officials are partnering with the messaging service owned by Facebook to send push notifications to users with advice on symptoms and how to avoid infection.<\/p>\n The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is also getting free ad space on Facebook for outreach about the pandemic, a benefit available to public health authorities in 11 other African countries, and around the world.<\/p>\n Twitter has been tweaking its algorithm to elevate medical information from authoritative sources – an initiative available in 70 countries, including five in Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has never been a more critical time than now for us to leverage on social media in sending out the right message,\u201d said Chikwe Ihekweazu, who heads the NCDC.<\/p>\n But governments and tech firms face an uphill battle: as the virus spreads, unfounded rumours are proliferating across multiple platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" African governments are partnering with technology giants including Facebook and WhatsApp to fight misinformation about coronavirus on social media platforms. The need arose as to a way to further curb the spread of the novel […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[27,51,35,52,53],"coauthors":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-africa","10":"tag-african-government","11":"tag-coronavirus","12":"tag-facebook","13":"tag-whatsapp"},"yoast_head":"\n