Virologist Drosten and colleagues warn in an open letter: "You should stop ..."

In an open letter, more than 100 doctors raise the alarm, criticizing giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter for spreading fake news. The focus is on two demands.

• The corona virus * causes exceptional conditions worldwide.
• Doctors fight for human lives every day in the coronavirus crisis. 
• But fake news is also making the situation worse. Virologist Drosten * and more than 100 other doctors are now turning to the public.
• Here you will find the basic facts about the coronavirus *. You can also see the current number of cases in Germany as a map *. The most important thing about the topic is also available on our brand new Facebook page Corona News.

Munich - While the coronavirus * is spreading worldwide, people are not only fighting for human lives every day, but also against fake news that spreads like wildfire around the coronavirus. 

The well-known virologist Christian Drosten and more than 100 other doctors, nurses and health experts are now addressing the public in an open letter. They demand: "In order to save lives and restore confidence in scientifically based health care, the tech giants have to stop stimulating the lies, distortions and fantasies that threaten us all." This means platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google and co . 

Coronavirus: "Countering the Deadly Spread of Misinformation"

Technology companies are “in an incomparable position of power” and are responsible for “countering the deadly spread of misinformation to prevent social media from making our society more ill.” The tech giants would need to further ignite lies, distortions and fantasies put an end to it. 

The letter was prompted by the current coronavirus pandemic *. Reports with false reports that cocaine was a cure for the virus or that Covid-19 * was developed as a biological weapon would spread faster than the virus itself.

Fake News: "Part of a Global Problem"

Nonetheless, this is only a  “part of a global problem” , since the wrong media are generally advertised on social media or postings “want to dissuade people from vaccinations and effective treatments.” This plays a major role because such contributions are made on social media reach an incredible range. 

The technology companies have already tried to react in the form of deletion of contributions, but the efforts are criticized in the letter as "by far not enough". This would not only make platforms easier to disseminate, but also make profit from them. The open letter has already been published in the New York Times .

Powerful! Open letter from leading health experts published in the @nytimes to @Facebook, @Twitter, @YouTube and @Google CEOs: “stop giving oxygen to the lies that threaten us all” “misinformation on your platform is threatening lives” # COVID_19 https: //t.co/pgFhkSTXmo pic.twitter.com/TcgxhV0kT8

Open letter during the Corona crisis: two demands in focus

For these reasons, the signers of the letter focus on two demands. Accordingly, "social media" should go ahead by ...

• ... "Publish corrections to the health misinformation." Platforms like Facebook have already started to flag posts with false reports. Nevertheless, these contributions are still accessible to millions of people. "ALL users" who have come into contact with false reports should therefore be warned. 
  
• ...  "Detoxify algorithms that determine what is displayed to users." The focus here is on pages and groups that would disseminate fake news, not to downgrade, but downgrade to the respective user feed. "Repeat offenders" should also be removed from "content-recommending algorithms."

Coronavirus: Facebook responds to demands of the open letter

"In a crisis like this, the fight against medical misinformation online is as important as exit restrictions and distance," said  Rajeev Fernando , an infectious disease specialist at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, in a letter accompanying the letter. The  Melanie Brinkmann (Institute of Genetics at the Technical University of Braunschweig) warned that fake news  "unnecessary spread fear and damage cause" might.

In response to the open letter, Facebook has already announced that it is acting aggressively against misinformation about Covid-19 and has already "warned millions of misinformation" and thousands of content have been removed. The company is "fully committed to supporting health care workers during this period".

It remains to be seen whether and to what extent the open letter will actually have an effect.

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* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network

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List of rubric lists: © dpa / Michael Kappeler