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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to counter the effects of fake news about the causes of COVID-19.

DCMS stood up the Cross-Whitehall Counter Disinformation Unit on 5 March 2020, bringing together cross-government monitoring and analysis capabilities. Its primary function is to provide a comprehensive picture of the extent, scope and impact of disinformation and misinformation on the response to Covid-19. Where misinformation and disinformation is identified, the Unit works with partners to ensure appropriate action is taken on this, including direct rebuttal on social media. We are working closely with social media platforms to help them identify and remove incorrect claims about the virus, in line with their terms and conditions, as well as promote authoritative sources of information. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport held a roundtable with major platforms earlier this month to explore how they can further limit the spread of misinformation.

Government is also running a counter disinformation campaign, “Don’t feed the Beast” which aims to increase audience resilience by educating and empowering those who see, inadvertently share and are affected by false and misleading information. The campaign promotes the SHARE checklist, providing the public with five easy steps to identify false content, encouraging users to stop and think before they share content online.