(NEW YORK, May 7th, 2020) — Over 100 doctors and nurses fighting the COVID-19 pandemic around the world have made public today a letter they’ve sent to CEOs at Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube. The letter -- featured in a full-page ad in today’s New York Times -- calls on the CEOs to urgently issue fact-checked corrections to all people exposed to COVID-19 misinformation. Signers include doctors working in some of the hardest hit hospitals in New York City to former officials at the CDC and FDA.

These health professionals are the latest group to join the chorus of voices calling on social media platforms to urgently address the infodemic by issuing corrections and detoxing their algorithms. This comes after seeing the threat of misinformation on patient health around the world -- from patients drinking disinfectants to ‘cure’ themselves, and people ignoring social distancing measures to those who didn’t seek medical attention early enough, because they thought coronavirus was less dangerous than the flu.

Explaining why he signed on to the letter, Michigan epidemiologist and CNN contributor Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said:  “E ven as nurses, doctors, public officials and all of us work to battle COVID-19, misinformation kills. We need to put an end to medical misinformation, and that starts with social media platforms doing the obvious, responsible thing and notifying users with corrections when they have been misinformed. It can save lives. "

New York epidemiologist and physician, Dr. Duncan Maru, says he signed the letter because: “As a parent and physician caring for COVID-19 patients in my neighborhood in Queens, New York, I’ve witnessed how lies about the virus are harming people’s lives -- from people drinking disinfectants to ‘cure’ themselves to those who think the crisis is just a hoax so they disregard social distancing guidelines or refuse to seek the care they need.”

Dr. Rajeev Fernando, a top infectious diseases specialist in New York, added: “My colleagues and I have heard from too many patients that COVID-19 is just like the flu - this misinformation has kept many people at home only to have their pneumonic symptoms grow worse without vital medical attention. For some people, by the time they reach the hospital it is too late. Yet more deaths that could’ve been prevented if patients weren’t bombarded with harmful misinformation online. In a crisis like this, fighting medical misinformation online is just as important as social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines.”

The full text of the letter and list of top signers can be found here .

Research shows that corrections on social media can significantly reduce belief in misinformation. A study Avaaz commissioned from George Washington University and the Ohio State University shows that providing social media users who have seen false or misleading information with corrections from fact-checkers can decrease belief in disinformation by an average of almost 50 percent .

Fadi Quran, Campaign Director at Avaaz said: “The heroes and heroines on the frontlines of this crisis are calling on Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Susan Wojcicki and Sundar Pichai for urgent help. These CEOs must work with fact-checkers to correct the lies so our doctors can save lives. It would be an incredible act of hubris not to heed their call.”

Recently, social media platforms have begun to respond to the COVID-19 infodemic. Facebook announced it would begin sending generic alerts to users who’ve interacted with harmful misinformation on their platform. YouTube also announced that it is expanding its use of fact-checking panels for search results in the US. Crucially these steps fall short of the doctors’ demands and best practices in fighting misinformation because neither Facebook nor YouTube are providing their users with corrections that directly debunk the misinformation they viewed and/or interacted with.

A recent Avaaz study uncovered that millions of Facebook’s users continued to be exposed to coronavirus misinformation without any warning from the platform. A recent study by King’s College London found a: “statistically significant negative relationship between belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and compliance with public health guidance with regard to COVID-19. This suggests that conspiracy beliefs may present a substantial public health risk.”

Notes to editor:

Contact details:
Media Team: media@avaaz.org

Avaaz work on disinformation: 

Avaaz is a global democratic movement with more than 50-million members around the world. All funds powering the organization come from small donations from individual members.

This report is part of an ongoing Avaaz campaign to protect democracies from the dangers of disinformation on social media. As part of that effort, Avaaz investigations have:

• revealed that Facebook's political fake news problem surges to over 150 million views before the US 2020 elections; 
• debunked a huge disinformation network with half a billion views ahead of the European Union elections in 2019;
• prompted Facebook to take down a network reaching 1.7m people in Spain days before the national election in 2019;
• shown that fake news (reaching 105m views) helped to fuel the Yellow Vests crisis in France; 
• shown how Facebook’s algorithm acts as a ‘megaphone for hate speech’ in India ; and 
• exposed a massive disinfo network (28 pages with 12.6m interactions) during the Brazil elections. 

Avaaz’s work on disinformation is rooted in the firm belief that fake news proliferating on social media poses a grave threat to democracy, the health and well-being of communities, and the security of vulnerable people. Avaaz reports openly on its disinformation research so it can alert and educate social media platforms, regulators, and the public, and to help society advance smart solutions to defend the integrity of our elections and our democracies.