New WhatsApp ‘coronavirus chatbot’ launched by UK government – and anyone can add it to contacts
A NEW coronavirus information service created by the UK government has launched on WhatsApp.
Brits simply need to add a phone number into their contacts to access a range of advice, alerts and official info.
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WhatsApp recently donated $1million to fight fake news around the coronavirus crisis.
The Facebook-owned chat app is handing the cash to the Poynter Insitute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
It's intended to provide simple guidance for health workers, educators, community leaders, businesses and other organisations that use WhatsApp to communicate.
It also offers general tips and resources for users to help reduce the spread of rumours.
"We know that our users are reaching out on WhatsApp more than ever at this time of crisis, whether it’s to friends and loved ones, doctors to patients, or teachers to students," said Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp.
"We wanted to provide a simple resource that can help connect people at this time.
"We are also pleased to be able to partner with the Poynter Institute to help grow the amount of fact-checking organizations on WhatsApp and to support their life saving work to debunk rumours.
"We will also continue to work directly with health ministries around the world for them to provide updates right within WhatsApp."
Tech giants have come under increasing pressure to help tackle the coronavirus crisis.
Last week, Facebook announced that it would give away $100million to help small businesses survive the outbreak.
The money will be shared across 30,000 organisations in more than 30 countries where Facebook employees live and work.
Some of the fund will be delivered directly as cash grants.
And some of it will be provided as advertising credits to use on Facebook's gargantuan ad platform.
In other news, beware this misleading WhatsApp hoax.
WhatsApp has quietly created a secret 'self-deleting message' feature.
And read our guide on how to send GIFs on WhatsApp.
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