Menendez Calls on Facebook to Halt Spread of Coronavirus Misinformation on WhatsApp

Statement

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J) today called on WhatsApp parent company Facebook to stop the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic on the instant messaging app. The letter sent by Sens. Menendez, Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) follows widespread reports of dangerous, false information about the coronavirus circulating among WhatsApp's two billion users worldwide.

"The spread of misinformation about the coronavirus compounds what is already an extremely difficult problem of stopping this worldwide pandemic as individuals receiving misinformation may fail to take adequate precautions and/or seek out proper medical care," the senators wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "Facebook's lack of action has allowed WhatsApp to devolve into what has been called a "petri dish of coronavirus misinformation.'"

Among the false information spreading like wildfire on WhatsApp, a claim that the anti-malaria drug chloroquine phosphate had been approved as a cure to coronavirus; it has not. The nation's leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently called any evidence that the drug could be an effective treatment for COVID-19 "anecdotal."

When Facebook announced in January that it would take steps to limit the spread of misinformation and harmful content relating to the coronavirus on both its main platform and Instagram, the senators noted that the company made no such commitment to take similar steps on WhatsApp.

While Facebook recently announced that WhatsApp will reduce the number of people or groups that a particularly viral message can be forwarded to from five to one, the senators argued there's more the company can do.

"Facebook's failure to adopt these commonsense measures suggests an indifference to the problems on WhatsApp that is not only unacceptable, but dangerous," the senators continued.