Fake news
As social media platforms struggle to deal effectively with a flood of misinformation about Covid-19, half of adults in the UK have been exposed to false or misleading information online, according to the country's communications regulator. Ofcom also said 40% of respondents reported finding it difficult to know what was true or false online. Amongst younger people, the figure was 52%. Meanwhile, research from Oxford University found more than half of the misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic that has been debunked by fact checkers remains on Twitter without any warning label. For its part, WhatsApp is imposing additional restrictions on how frequently a message can be shared on its platform in an effort to curb the spread of misinformation. And YouTube has banned all videos spreading the ludicrous conspiracy theory linking coronavirus symptoms to 5G cellular networks. Unfortunately, that decision has been seized on to fuel theories about a conspiracy.