'The old rules are dead': How a pandemic could change the way Google, Facebook, and Twitter tackle misinformation forever

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The coronavirus pandemic presents an unparalleled challenge to social media companies

• Coronavirus has forced big tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to take unprecedented action to stop the spread of harmful misinformation.
• The pandemic has so far killed close to 50,000 people worldwide, and the internet has been overrun with fake cures and conspiracy theories.
• Social media companies have previously insisted they only offer "platforms", meaning they don't share the same legal responsibilities as publishers for the content on their sites.
• But experts told Business Insider this argument will be significantly weakened once the pandemic is over - and could change the way they operate forever.
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Coronavirus has forced the Big Tech giants to take unprecedented steps in the battle against misinformation.

The pandemic has disrupted everyday life for millions around the world, forcing many to remain indoors and so far claiming the lives of close to 50,000 victims.

In response, tech titans such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have ramped up their efforts to combat conspiracy theorists and snake oil salesmen online.

Facebook launched a "COVID-19 Information Hub", compiling guidance from reliable sources - such as the CDC and WHO - and placing it at the top of every user's news feed.

Twitter broadened its definition of "harm" to include content that goes against guidance provided by "authoritative sources of global and local public health information".

Both Facebook and Twitter have begun removing posts from politicians such as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for endorsing the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the novel coronavirus. Facebook has up until now argued it won't remove posts from politicians, even lies, saying that they count as political speech.

Meanwhile, the Infowars Android app has been banned from the Google Play store after host Alex Jones "disputed the need for social distancing", and the firm is working to remove harmful content from YouTube and its own search engine results.

But now that a global pandemic has forced them to exercise unparalleled control over what appears on their platforms, experts are contemplating what social media will look like in a post-coronavirus world.

Platform or publisher?

Facebook and its contemporaries have long denied the responsibilities that burden "publishers", such as newspapers or TV broadcasters, insisting they are merely "platforms" allowing said publishers to transmit content to their audiences.

This stance has kept them safe from legal challenges in the past, and meant they only had to take action in the most serious of circumstances, such as when video footage of the Christchurch massacre was widely circulated on Facebook and YouTube.

Alex Jones/YouTube

The Infowars app has been removed from the Google Play store

Despite mounting pressure, the tech titans have been reluctant to ban individual users - reserving that right for only the most egregious offenders - instead relying on the principle of free speech to avoid making tough judgment calls.

Pushed on this issue, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously said: "I feel fundamentally uncomfortable sitting here in California in an office making content policy decisions for people around the world."

But an unprecedented challenge has provoked unprecedented action.

Emily Cox, a partner at Stewarts, one of the biggest litigation law firms in London, told Business Insider that Facebook and others' moves against misinformation in recent weeks marked a "continuum in incrementally altered behavior" since the Cambridge Analytica data scandal broke in 2017.

"Big Tech arguments about free speech are not being rehearsed in the way that they have been in the past," she said. "It's unlikely they'll be able to put the genie back in the bottle."

As far as Google executives are concerned, the firm is simply applying pre-established principles around reliable information, rather than doing something unique in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

But critics have highlighted the proliferation of "herbal cures" for cancer still advertised in the search engine's results, questioning why these haven't been removed with the same enthusiasm.

Google

Google search results for 'Herbal cure for stage 4 cancer'

Niall O'Malley, digital director of tech marketing firm T/F/D, told Business Insider: "The only certainty is the old rules are dead.

"The easiest position for [these companies] was to put the responsibility on the user for the content they shared. Now, as they delete misinformation and share public health messages, the game has changed - there's a legislative tsunami heading their way in 2021."

Critics have questioned how Big Tech platforms have proven so nimble in removing misinformation about coronavirus, while far-right groups and fake remedies continue to flourish.

"With an increasing social role comes greater social responsibility," said Alfonso Marone, head of media and technology advisory at KPMG.

"Events like this crisis demonstrate that social media platforms have become important, if not critical, infrastructure at a national and global level...

"For the dominant digital media platforms, this will eventually translate into greater accountability over safeguarding, opinion-sharing, and democratic processes."

Like Google, Facebook says it has always prohibited "misinformation that leads to imminent danger and physical risk" - but there have been questions over how this power is defined and deployed.

Alex Kantrowitz, a journalist at BuzzFeed and author of the upcoming "Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever", said the current crisis had "brought the question [of censorship] into focus".

"Personally, I'm reticent to ask them to be heavy-handed or to filter material on their platforms," he said. "But I'm not blind to the fact that it's been too easy to lie and share misinformation online for too long.

"We're at the stage now where people are so skeptical of the mainstream media - even in the middle of a pandemic - that many assume it's all just fake news."

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the firm it would remove "attempts to distort or inorganically influence the conversation" around coronavirus.

"With a critical mass of expert organizations, official government accounts, health professionals, and epidemiologists on our service, our goal is to elevate and amplify authoritative health information.

"We continue to work in partnership with the WHO, and ministries of health in 64 countries to provide people with access to credible, verified public health information."

Facebook and Google declined to comment.

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