UNICEF LAUNCHES VIRTUAL CHATBOT ABOUT COVID-19

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Moldova launches the COVID-19 virtual chatbot, to provide speedy answers to questions that young people might have about the virus, but also to raise their awareness about the harmful effect of fake news, myths and associated stigma.

According to the UNICEF-Moldova, by using the COVID-19 virtual chatbot through U-Report one can learn what coronavirus is, how it spreads, if you can get the virus from pets, or whether you need to put on a mask. The answers are coming from trustful sources, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), and UNICEF.

"As the world is fighting against the COVID-19 outbreak, a considerable number of adolescents and youth around the world have been impacted by school closings, suspensions and other type of disruption. They may be affected also by misinformation and fake news about the new virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier that false claims are spreading faster than the virus and has already termed it an "infodemic", the UNICEF maintains.

According to them, young people use social media a lot. Without proper knowledge, they can have a reinforcing effect on the creators of disinformation and sustain the fake news ecosystem.

"To help them recognize disinformation, and stop the vicious cycle of fake news, UNICEF provides a digital solution for young people that helps perform an easy first check before searching the internet to see if more than one reliable source is reporting about the same thing", the organization says.

To start using the chatbot, one has to join the U-report platform which allows having up-to-date and trustworthy information on COVID-19. On Viber one should go to https://chats.viber.com/ureportmoldova and on Facebook -- to join https://www.facebook.com/Ureport.Moldova/ and then type CORONAVIRUS in the messages to the group and follow the instructions. The tool is available in Romanian and Russian languages.