MANILA, PHILIPPINES – As the global conversation continues around the spread of novel #coronavirus, Twitter wants to share the work they’re doing to surface the right information, to promote constructive engagement, and to highlight credible information on this emerging issue. The platform has seen over 15 million Tweets on this topic in the past four weeks and that trend looks set to continue.
Preventing platform manipulation
At present, Twitter is not seeing significant coordinated attempts to spread disinformation at scale about this issue. However, they will remain vigilant and have invested significantly in our proactive abilities to ensure trends, search, and other common areas of the service are protected from malicious behaviors. As ever, those who engage in these practices will be removed from the service. Twitter does not permit platform manipulation and encourages people to think before sharing or engaging in deliberate attempts to undermine the public conversation.
Expanding search prompt
Given the rapidly evolving nature of the issue and the growing international response, the social media platform has launched a new dedicated search prompt to ensure that when you come to the service for information about the #coronavirus, you’re met with credible, authoritative information first. In addition, they’re halting any auto-suggest results that are likely to direct individuals to non-credible content on Twitter. This is an expansion of the #KnowTheFacts prompt, which was specifically put in place for the public to find clear, credible information on immunization and vaccination health. When people search for information about coronavirus on Twitter in both English and Tagalog, the notification will appear in Tagalog.
The official #coronavirus partnerships are now in place in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S., and Vietnam. We will continue to expand as the need arises. In the Philippines, Twitter partnered with the Department of Health, as well as the World Health Organization regional offices covering Philippines, and Western Pacific Region. The notification points people to the Department of Health’s dedicated website on coronavirus.
Direct engagement
Finally, the Global Public Policy team is proactively seeking ways to integrate the product with organizations involved in the effort to contain the threat. Experts, NGOs, and governments play a pivotal public service role, using Twitter to reach people with the right information when they need it. Twitter is committed to playing our part to amplify authoritative, official content across the globe.
For more, please follow @TwitterGov and @Policy, where we will provide updates as appropriate.
