Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to tackle fake news and disinformation on covid-19 as part of its campaign entitled Don’t feed the Beast.

It is vitally important that the public has access to credible and verified information about COVID-19. As part of our counter disinformation campaign, “Don’t Feed the Beast”, we are increasing audience resilience by educating and empowering users who see or inadvertently share false and misleading information. The campaign promotes the SHARE checklist, providing the public with five easy steps to identify false information and actions to consider prior to sharing content online. It is currently running on Facebook and Instagram. Alongside publicly promoting the campaign, we continue to raise awareness of Don’t Feed the Beast with wider stakeholders, including social media platforms, civil society and academia.

The campaign was previously targeted at 18-34 year olds, as this audience is considered vulnerable to disinformation. In March 2020 the campaign was relaunched to tackle misinformation and disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic. It now targets all UK adults.

I also refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to his question number 48542 on 2 June, which captures the wider actions we have taken to counter misinformation and disinformation related to COVID-19. This includes working closely with social media platforms to help them identify and remove incorrect claims about the virus, as well as promoting authoritative sources of information.