Experts are worried about the role social media plays in how people judge news related to COVID-19 - especially among users who are vulnerable to "clickbait" stories.
New Study Finds News Judgment Deteriorated
A new report from research group Reboot Foundation found that more time spent on social media might result in poorer news judgment - raising concerns about how people view fake news during the pandemic.
The study also found that older users, 60 years and over, were more vulnerable to clickbait news. Eighty-one percent of the time older social-media users opened clickbait stories - compared with 72% among those aged 30 and younger.
Furthermore, the report found that around 1% only of those who took part in the study had knowledge about fact-checking.
The report called "Is There A Fake News Generation?" discusses whether too much social media during the COVID-19 pandemic helps ease or exacerbate worries.
Twitter Wars Over Yan Report
China virologist Li-Meng Yan and her team posted an article on general-purpose open-access repository Zenodo last week triggering debate among scientists and researchers on Twitter.
Yan's report said there was genetic evidence suggesting that the novel coronavirus was developed in a laboratory. However, several virology experts questioned the legitimacy of Yan's findings.
Carl Bergstrom from the University of Washington and Kristian Anderson from Scripps Research were among the virologists who took to social media to rebut the report that has since gone viral.
Yan's report is "encroaching on pseudoscience, really," David Robertson of the University of Glasgow said.
The report is among several that have circulated on social media and that experts have questioned because of inadequate evidence and scientific discussion on the origins of COVID-19.
Anti-Vaccine Movement On Facebook
Anti-coronavirus vaccine posts have become common on Facebook over the past few weeks and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the posts will not be censored.
There has been increasing scrutiny of several issues over the past few years including political ads that use incorrect information or fake news.
The vaccine issue arose as groups calling on people to reject COVID-19 vaccines continue to post on Facebook.
Several treatments are in late-stage clinical trials as potential novel coronavirus vaccines that many countries around the world have already signed up for.
Facebook and other social media have been trying to reduce fake news related to the novel coronavirus but posts continue to appear daily.
Latest International COVID-19 Update
The worldwide coronavirus infection toll has reached more than 31.16 million while at least 962,008 have died as a result of the disease.
The hardest-hit country, the U.S., has logged 7,046,216 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 204,506 deaths as of Monday.
India has reported at least 5,562,663 confirmed coronavirus cases. The death toll in the second hardest-hit country in the world reached 88,965 as of Monday.
