Social media giants have promoted their strategies to combat misinformation related to the epidemic, which has claimed more than 560 lives in China and spread to 24 countries.
"This includes claims related to false cures or prevention methods -- like drinking bleach cures the coronavirus -- or claims that create confusion about health resources that are available," Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook's head of health, said in a statement. One 11-minute video, claiming the tinospora crispa plant is an effective"antibiotic" for the virus, was viewed more than 1.5 million times on Facebook.A video of a purported doctor advising people to steam disposable surgical face masks to reuse them was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple Chinese-language posts on Facebook, Weibo and Youku.
The claim was widely refuted by health experts who urged Sri Lankans to follow official Ministry of Health recommendations.