Infotagion offers a free service, in which members of the public
links, screenshots or questions on its website. Those articles are then assessed by a team of internal fact-checkers, who then state whether a claim is true or false. The concept is similar to Snopes, the popular US fact-checking site."We were quite instrumental in encouraging some of the behavior you see now," admits Harrington, referring to UniLad's focus on viral content.
In recent weeks, fake news articles have gone viral claiming the novel coronavirus has unsettling connections with Bill Gates and 5G cell towers, while offering up bogus "miracle cures" such as vitamin C tablets and colloidal silver. on 50 phone masts in the UK. "We used to get people to share dog videos and celebrity gossip," says Quinlan. "But the stuff being shared by mums in WhatsApp groups now is crazy.Within 12 hours of Harrington and Quinlan's conversation with Business Insider, a clip of US President Donald Trump speculating on whether injections of disinfectant or exposure to UV light could cure COVID-19 is everywhere. "The point we're trying to get across is simple," Quinlan says. "Misinformation kills.