Top MP sets up coronavirus fact-check site to fight fake news online
A TOP Tory MP has set up a coronavirus fact-checking project to help fight fake news on social media.
Brits can submit any dubious claims they might get sent on WhatsApp, Facebook or YouTube and ask their team of researchers to look into it.
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Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, has launched Infotagion.com to help debunk myths and slap down conspiracy theories floating around the internet.
So far they’ve had more than 3,000 claims sent in to them, and their team of volunteers are working to get replies to as many people as possible.
The former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has teamed up with experts from Oxford University and other MPs to encourage the public to think about the information they are sharing online.
Mr Collins told The Sun: “Coronavirus is the first major public health crisis is the era of disinformation – and we are seeing just how dangerous it can be.
There is a real need for people to be able to fact check what they are seeing, so if you get a message in your WhatsApp group you can easily go and check whether it’s true or not.
“We want to isolate the lies about coronavirus, and amplify the truths.”
In the early days of the virus the MP was himself sent misinformation in his son’s football team chat, and knows how common rumours and falsehoods can be spread across the internet.
Fake news that has been debunked so far includes claims that drinking warm water can flush out the virus – and that the virus was created deliberately in a Chinese lab and released.
Nearly 30 per cent of Americans believed that the virus originally came from a science lab, showing just how widespread the problem can be.
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And last week a fake message claiming to be from an ambulance call handler went viral, saying that a third of all deaths were set to be children.
The site only uses trusted information from Governments and the World Health Organisation to check out the claims.
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