Instagram Co-Watching lets you browse with friends from your own home
Instagram is putting more effort into fighting against misinformation during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic while offering more tools to promote physical distancing.
The company’s new measures are expanding on Facebook‘s existing misinformation policy aiming to limit the spread of misinformation and potentially harmful content about the virus.
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Back in January, Facebook announced they would be removing false claims and conspiracy theories about the virus.
If you haven’t noticed by now, searching for the terms relating to the virus brings up information from the World Health Organization. On top of that, information regarding updates on the outbreak are being pushed to the top of everyone’s feed.
In January, they also said they would be temporarily banning ads and sale listings for medical face masks. CNBC reports part of that measure is aiming at preventing people from price gouging necessary medical supplies that are already in a shortage.
Facebook Director of Product Management Rob Leathern announced the measure in a tweet which you can see below.
Update: We’re banning ads and commerce listings selling medical face masks. We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency. We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) March 7, 2020
The new measures the social media company is announcing today includes a new feature called Co-Watching. It will allow you to browse posts along with friends over in-app video chat. The point of it is to increase the likelihood people will practice physical distancing instead of hanging out in person.
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Beyond that, a new educational alert from WHO will appear at the top of search bars. Verifiable health information from authorities is being promoted while removal of misinformation is becoming more aggressive.
According to The Verge, an Instagram spokesperson says posts that aren’t cleared by third-party fact checkers are being removed from the Explore feature as well as appearing in hashtag searches.
“If posts are rated false by third-party-fact checkers, we remove them from Explore and hashtag pages,” the spokesperson says in a statement to The Verge. “We also remove false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities as having the potential to cause harm to people who believe them.”
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This is part of our work to keep people connected during COVID-19. ❤️ For more updates on how we’re supporting our community at this time, visit https://t.co/i4x5FyOVN1
— Instagram (@instagram) March 24, 2020
Introducing Co-Watching, a new way to see Instagram posts together with your friends over video chat.? pic.twitter.com/ObLnqxbUTS
— Instagram (@instagram) March 24, 2020
Today we’re sharing more updates on the work we’re doing to support the Instagram community in light of COVID-19.
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
To reduce the spread of misinformation, we’ll now remove COVID-19 accounts from account recommendations, and we are working to remove some COVID-19 related content from Explore, unless posted by a credible health organization.
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
In the coming days, we’ll roll out a new feature that connects people with accurate information when they search for COVID-19 related terms. pic.twitter.com/vKmmPMKLmK
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
To give people more ways to give back at this time, we added a new COVID-19 section to our Donation sticker so people can quickly identify relevant nonprofits. We are also making the sticker available in other countries. pic.twitter.com/gtUg5wLQtq
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
To help people stay connected, we’re launching Co-Watching, a new feature that allows you to view Instagram posts together with your friends while you video chat. pic.twitter.com/s6FPNNt3AK
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
Finally, when people report content to us, we’ll let them know that we will prioritize those instances that have the greatest potential to harm our community so we can keep our reviewers safe by having them stay home. pic.twitter.com/wHsVpCsfmW
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) March 24, 2020
What do you think of Instagram’s new tools and measures they’re putting in place? Let us know in the comments below.
