Facebook, Amazon, and Google Busy Amid COVID-19 Spread... "Stop Excessive Profits and False Advertising"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] As the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) continues worldwide, major IT companies such as Facebook and Amazon are waging a war against profiteering and exaggerated advertising. With movements to spread false information or generate profits by taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak continuing, IT companies are actively working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent this.

According to major foreign media on the 1st (local time), Amazon suspended transactions of more than one million products last month on the 27th that falsely claimed to cure COVID-19 and were being sold at high prices. Amazon also stopped transactions with tens of thousands of sellers who attempted to hoard items related to COVID-19.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December last year and its rapid spread worldwide until recently, masks, disinfectants, and books introducing infection prevention methods have been continuously registered as products for sale on Amazon. One foreign media outlet cited "CamelCamelCamel.com," which tracks price changes of products listed on Amazon, pointing out that the price of a 10-pack of N95 masks made by a mask manufacturer, which usually traded at $41.24, was $128 as of the 27th of last month.

Amazon stated in a press release, "There is no place on Amazon where price gouging is allowed," emphasizing, "If products listed on Amazon are priced significantly higher than prices traded inside or outside Amazon, causing issues such as damaging customer trust, Amazon may remove these transactions." It added that it will continue to monitor price trends and whether products with false claims related to COVID-19 are being listed.

The world's largest social networking service (SNS), Facebook, has been cracking down on exaggerated advertisements exploiting the COVID-19 outbreak since last month. It blocks advertisements that mention COVID-19 while claiming infection prevention effects or guaranteed cures, or that create a sense of crisis by implying supply shortages. For example, advertisements such as "face masks that can 100% prevent COVID-19 infection" are not allowed. Facebook explained, "Since WHO declared a public health emergency, we have been trying to support WHO's work in various ways for weeks."

Google has also been placing official information provided by WHO at the top of search result pages since the end of January. In the case of YouTube, when users search for COVID-19, reliable videos operated by public health experts or related channels are displayed at the top. Twitter is working to block accounts spreading false information.

The reason major IT companies are acting like this is that after the spread of COVID-19, various fake news and conspiracy theories have spread, causing anxiety and enabling some to profit from it. According to The Washington Post (WP), the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a U.S. State Department unit responding to influence operations, analyzed 29 million Twitter posts from countries other than the U.S. from January 20, after WHO's declaration of an "international public health emergency," to the 10th of last month, and found that about 2 million tweets spreading conspiracy theories were disseminated over three weeks. Examples include claims that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation created COVID-19 or that it is the result of a biochemical weapon. This accounts for about 7% of all tweets examined by GEC.

Some of these tweets appear to have involved foreign governments or other malicious actors intentionally stirring fear and discord. Activities of fake accounts with unidentified operators or "bot" accounts that automatically post content were detected. For example, tweets linking COVID-19 to the Gates Foundation were amplified through fake accounts, and conspiracy theories that a Department of Defense agency created the virus to attack China spread rapidly via bot accounts. GEC emphasized, "Traditional media play an important role in checking a small number of fake websites that spread false stories."

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, WHO has already been meeting and collaborating with major IT companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Twitter in Silicon Valley to prevent the spread of fake news and misinformation.

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