The White House on Wednesday, Mar. 11, sought the help of Silicon Valley to help tackle coronavirus. Reports claim that technology companies were urged to fight misinformation and other harmful content related to the outbreak.
According to Politico, the government asked Silicon Valley to augment efforts to track the outbreak, disseminate accurate information, and help Americans who are out of work or school.
The requests came to a roughly hour-long meeting between top Trump administration aides, federal health authorities, and various tech representatives. Washington sought to leverage the tech enterprise's powerful tools to connect workers and analyze information to combat an epidemic that has already infected more than 1,000 in the United States.
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Tech giants, online platforms play key roles to contain coronavirus
In a statement, the White House's chief technology officer Michael Kratsios said tech giants and significant online platforms play a critical role in the effort in eradicating coronavirus.
During the consultation, White House officials advised the tech industry to coordinate their efforts to prevent the unfold of coronavirus conspiracy theories on major social media sites. The officials also urged the tech companies to trade data about dangerous hoaxes before it goes viral, the three sources named said.
The sources had a "collegial brainstorming" during the private phone-and-video conversation. Most tech companies in attendance, however, either did not respond or declined to comment.
Unpublished State report discovers thousands of fake tweets regarding the outbreak
The Washington Post reported that nobody was singled out or played the faultfinding game during the meeting. However, the requests for a better collaboration came weeks after an unpublished State Department report found thousands of tweets that peddled hoax on the deadly outbreak.
In the report, State Department blames 'swarms of online, false personas' from Russia for the wave of coronavirus misinformation online.
In a statement sent to Washington Post, Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy said the company's goal is to elevate and amplify authoritative health information on its service.
According to the three participants, top White House aides said the government might soon allocate more research on coronavirus, which Kratsios urged tech groups to analyze.
White House hopes Silicon Valley would deploy engineers to crunch information
The hope, U.S. Officials stated, is that Silicon Valley would deploy its engineers - and tap its effective systems for crunching and understanding the disease more.
Tech corporations take a tight line against coronavirus myths. But what about other sorts of misinformation?
The government's efforts to enlist Silicon Valley's resource got here in a week. White House officials also consulted with pharmaceutical giants, healthcare providers, airline executives, and Wall Street leaders in an attempt to fight a fast-spreading pandemic. The novel coronavirus has erased economic gains, canceled events, and sent students home.
Tech giants explored various approaches to fight the virus
A few tech giants explored ways to maximize their sky-high income and useful technologies in supporting health officials battling a pandemic on the verge of an epidemic.
Fake treatments and different coronavirus conspiracy theories are flooding WhatsApp, leaving governments and customers with a 'sense of panic'
Facebook chief officer Mark Zuckerberg, for example, said the agency has tried to supply facts to researchers monitoring coronavirus. His private nonprofit organization additionally has funded efforts to collect its genome and enhance testing at a moment when patients are struggling from getting diagnosed.
IBM supercomputers have aided government scientists reading capability drug compounds that can fight coronavirus, the business enterprise has stated. Others, including Microsoft and Amazon, are behind multi-million greenback relief funds in their home nation of Washington, which has been hit toughest domestically.
