WhatsApp And WHO Team Up To Fight Coronavirus Misinformation

Messengers like WhatsApp make for a great tool to help send messages and keep in communication with loved ones. Unfortunately, due to the ease of use, a lot of misinformation can be knowingly and unknowingly shared through the platform. With the world facing a crisis with the coronavirus outbreak, getting accurate information is more important than ever.

So much so that WhatsApp and the World Health Organization (WHO) have teamed up and created a chatbot for WhatsApp. What this does is that it allows users of WhatsApp to receive information about the coronavirus directly from the WHO themselves, as opposed to receiving forwarded messages that can sometimes prove to be inaccurate.

According to Will Cathcart, who runs WhatsApp, of WHO Health Alert, “We already have over one million people signed up even though we haven’t even announced it yet. It’s great. There seems to be a lot of appetite from people for ways to get good, accurate information and we’re happy to do what we can there to help.”

If you are interested in using the chatbot, all you need to do is text “hi” to +41 79 893 1892, after which you will receive a text back from the WHO that will contain a menu of items containing all sorts of information about the coronavirus.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, General
Tags: Apps, Coronavirus, covid-19, Facebook, Health, Whatsapp