What the pandemic taught Facebook about public health

The COVID-19 pandemic offered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, the chance to collect data about global health messages across more than 100 countries. And its head of health partnerships told Devex on Wednesday that results differed noticeably across countries.

Lu’chen Foster spoke to Amruta Byatnal, senior editor at Devex, as part of a special event to accompany the 75th World Health Assembly.

Meta platforms have faced criticism, including from the U.S. president, for failing to do enough to counter misinformation around the pandemic. Facebook faced controversy after unbanning comments saying the virus was human-made. And a report published late last year said there were still major gaps in the platform’s fact-checking.

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