How to Detect New Coronavirus 'Fake News' Spreading on YouTube and SNS

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] As the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia) originating in Wuhan, China spreads rapidly, global fear is also growing. This fear is amplified by false information or unverified facts circulating online through platforms such as YouTube and social networking services (SNS). Recently on YouTube, a man claiming to be a Chinese nurse appeared and asserted that "more than 90,000 people have already been infected with the novel coronavirus." This claim quickly spread through domestic online communities and SNS, but its accuracy has not been confirmed. Chinese health authorities dismissed rumors of "100,000 confirmed cases," stating they had never heard of such figures, but the public reacts much more sensitively to unverified information appearing on YouTube.

Because of this, our government is focusing not only on preventing the domestic spread of the disease but also on blocking false information commonly referred to as 'fake news.' A representative example is the Korea Communications Standards Commission's (KCSC) 'Focused Monitoring on Information Causing Social Confusion' related to the novel coronavirus, which began on the 28th. The KCSC explained that based on Article 8 of the Communications Review Regulations concerning information and communications (violations of good morals and other social order), which allows for correction requests in cases where content is likely to cause significant social confusion, "considering the very high risk of unnecessary social confusion caused by indiscriminately spreading implausible information detached from facts, which heightens public confusion and anxiety."

◆ Comprehensive Investigation of Portals and SNS = The KCSC operates 10 communication-related review teams, including the Communications Review Bureau, the Rights Protection Bureau, and the Digital Sexual Crime Review Support Group. According to a KCSC official, monitoring of false information related to the novel coronavirus is handled by the Information Culture Protection Team within the Communications Review Bureau. There are 43 personnel assigned to this monitoring. They plan to conduct a comprehensive investigation of portal sites and SNS to identify false information spreading through these channels. The selected cases are then submitted to the Communications Review Subcommittee, composed of five members including the chairman, who review and decide on correction requests.

The KCSC, based on these decisions, requests deletion or correction of information involving domestic operators such as portals, and takes measures to prevent information from overseas operators that cannot be deleted from entering the country. A KCSC official said, "We submit cases for review to the Communications Review Subcommittee about once a week," adding, "Since correction requests at the committee level have limitations, we plan to ask operators to exercise voluntary regulation on false information that violates their own rules, considering public anxiety."

Image source=Yonhap News

◆ YouTube and Facebook Also Respond to 'Fake News' = Global IT companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter have also taken steps to block false information related to the novel coronavirus. According to the U.S. 'Washington Post,' Facebook recently diagnosed that nine types of falsehoods related to the coronavirus were spreading indiscriminately and implemented fact-checking to block related posts. These include conspiracy theories such as U.S. government officials secretly creating or obtaining patents for the novel coronavirus, and false information claiming that oil extracted from oregano, a type of herb, is effective against the virus. Notably, posts related to 'oregano oil' date back about ten years.

Twitter has decided to provide the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with data on users' searches of hashtags related to the novel coronavirus on its platform. YouTube, a Google subsidiary, stated that it uses an algorithm that prioritizes content from reliable sources. YouTube spokesperson Pashad Shadlu emphasized, "We are making significant investments in our platform to prevent the spread of misinformation and to ensure that people searching for news see results from authoritative sources first." YouTube is also known to use artificial intelligence (AI) to filter harmful information. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki stated, "In the first quarter of 2019 alone, we removed 8.3 million pieces of harmful and hateful content," adding, "More than 75% of these were removed automatically by AI."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.