Twitter joins hands with Indian govt to offer genuine COVID-19 info

While health officials working round the clock to take care of the coronavirus infected people and curb the spread of the global pandemic COVID-19, there is a lot of misformation in social media, which may dampen the efforts of both the government and related agencies.

Due to fake news and misunderstanding, some people, particularly in India are resisting health workers from carrying out their duty.

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Now, Twitter has joined hands with the Indian government's health ministry and other stakeholders to offer genuine and comprehensive information on COVID-19 for people.

"We're working with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, various State Governments to upskill various departments on COVID response management. We have also supported and enabled the Govt of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to set-up dedicated COVID-Response accounts. Govt. of Karnataka, Maharashtra; Follow them here: DIPR Karnataka, Maharashtra Control room, Jharkhand COVID Helpline, UP COVID helpline. We have also published a Twitter List of key police accounts on Twitter for the latest and credible information on #Lockdown21. People can Tweet to them for any queries. A strong example of this was @DelhiPolice using the service to host a Tweet Chat, addressing public queries and concerns related to the Lockdown," the Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.

Furthermore, Twitter is offering a dedicated COVID-19 search prompt. When people come to the service to search for related COVID-19 conversation, the search prompt offers content from credible sources such as national health agencies and the World Health Organisation (@WHO).

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As far as India is concerned, the search prompt directs people to the official Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (@MoHFW) and @WHO websites. Check this (here)

Also, Twitter has opened a dedicated bilingual page (here), which offers everything related to COVID-19 in India under one roof.

Twitter has also scaled up its security to curb the spread of fake news.

"We have expanded our safety rules and broadened our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information. In addition to reports, we will enforce this in close coordination with trusted partners, including public health authorities and governments, and continue to use and consult with information from those sources when reviewing content," the company spokesperson said.

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