Please get your info from official, trusted sources.” “These messages are scaring and confusing people and causing real damage. “I am urging everyone to please stop sharing unverified info on WhatsApp groups,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday on Twitter. The problem is now so acute that world leaders are urging people to stop sharing unverified information using the app.

The platform is being used to spread messages that often contain a mixture of accurate and misleading claims that have been debunked by medical experts. (FB), is coming under renewed scrutiny over how it handles misinformation as the coronavirus pandemic rampages across the globe, infecting more than 200,000 people and killing over 8,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. But those efforts are being undermined by the spread of medical misinformation and fake cures on one of the world’s most popular messaging platforms. Governments and medical officials are scrambling to provide the public with accurate and timely information about the novel coronavirus.

Whatsapp down 2020