White House talks with tech giants on information sharing, telehealth and education

Netease Technology News March 12 news, according to Bloomberg, on Wednesday, US time, White House officials held a conference call with technology companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter (Twitter) to discuss how to combat online mistakes about the new crown pneumonia. information and other measures to contain the spread of the disease.

Michael Kratsios, the U.S. government’s chief technology officer, moderated the meeting, which also included representatives from tech companies and tech industry organizations including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and others.

According to a statement from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, discussions focused on sharing information with the government, coordinating the delivery of telehealth and online education, and creating new tools to help researchers submit applications for awards, among other things.

“Frontier tech companies and major online platforms will play a key role in this effort to engage people[inthefightagainstCOVID-19],” Cressios said in a statement. He said his office will be in the A research database on the new coronavirus will be released in the next few days.

Officials from the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies also participated in the call.

American researchers and journalists have documented much of the misinformation circulating online about the new coronavirus. U.S. social media companies have been grappling with this problem, with a particular focus on false health information.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter send data on users who have searched for information about the new coronavirus on their platforms to relevant health authorities, including the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and provide ad placements to health care providers for free. organizations and major NGOs.

Google also blocked ads that exploited the coronavirus for profit. On YouTube, the company removed “content that claimed to prevent the new coronavirus without seeking treatment.”

Facebook has begun removing false claims and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, a move that goes beyond the site’s practice of labeling other topics as dubious. The company said it would “remove content flagged as false claims or conspiracy theories by major global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to those who believe them.” In January, Facebook said that a circulating The false claim is that drinking bleach will cure the disease Covid-19.

Facebook continues to work with independent third parties to fact-check and notify users who may have shared false prevention advice, as well as publish verified advice to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

It also banned ads and shopping lists for face masks, and banned ads on its Instagram and Facebook that used the spread of the virus to create panic. On Instagram, it “has blocked or restricted hashtags used to spread misinformation.”

Meanwhile, Twitter said on Wednesday that it “has not seen significant coordinated action” to manage information about the coronavirus on the platform.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner sent a letter to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence late on Wednesday, arguing that the administration had failed to combat disinformation about the coronavirus The concern is that false or misleading information is also coming directly from senior government officials, including the president.”

Warner cited several examples of Trump’s misleading comments in the letter, including Trump’s claim that the World Health Organization’s statistics on the death rate of the new coronavirus worldwide are wrong. A White House spokesman declined to comment.