author: Bart Swiatek
Facebook Will Ban Some of the Coronavirus Medicine Ads
Facebook has announced that it intends to ban several advertisements of COVID-19 coronavirus medicine, which are said to spread fear and play on user emotions. The company does not want the website to be used for disinformation and making money from the commotion associated with this epidemic.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Facebook will be removing ads for fake medicines for COVID-19 coronavirus;
- The matter concerns ads that suggest urgency or limited availability.
Business Insider reports that Facebook will start banning advertisements of fake medicines for COVID-19 coronavirus, which play on users' emotions. The company wants to reduce disinformation and panic on its social networking website. The information was provided by a spokesperson Mark Zuckerberg's company.
"We recently implemented a policy to prohibit ads that refer to the coronavirus and create a sense of urgency, like implying a limited supply, or guaranteeing a cure or prevention. We also have policies for surfaces like Marketplace that prohibit similar behavior," reads the statement for Business Insider.
It is worth recalling that a few weeks ago - at the end of January this year - the company informed that it will remove posts containing false information about the discussed disease (e.g. those that have been disavowed by the World Health Organization) if they pose a risk of causing a negative impact on the health of the readers. This is a reasonable step, given the coronavirus-related statements, conspiracy theories and memes that appear on the web.
Originating from the Chinese town of Wuhan, the COVID-19 coronavirus has so far killed over 2.7 thousand people. The number of infected people has reached 80,000 (current data can be found at this address). Although these statistics are not very shocking in global scale, the spread of the disease and the difficulties in detecting it cause disproportionate panic in societies in many countries (which is not necessarily bad, because sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry). It's not surprising that there are scammers who want to make money from this situation.
It is worth recalling that COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the industry - because of it many companies have cancelled or limited their participation in upcoming events, such as PAX East 2020 or Game Developers Conference 2020. Some of the events have been completely cancelled because of the threat. In Asia (mainly in China, but not only there), numerous factories have also been closed, which may have an impact on hardware prices, and in the worst case, even on the planned launch of next-gen consoles this year.