As the COVID-19 outbreak rolls on, many opportunistic actors are now stepping in, spreading misinformation and false reports in order to sow fear, gain political traction, or sell their goods. This also comes at a time where the major social networks have been forced to reduce their content moderation teams in light of COVID-19 concerns. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have all noted that they will need to revert to more automated detection of platform rule violations because their moderation teams, which generally operate in large offices, are not able to work at full capacity via remote connection. It's one of the many challenges of the evolving situation – and now, Facebook's looking at another way to help it address the same, while it's also seeking to maximise local news coverage in order to keep local communities more informed on the latest coronavirus updates.

WhatApp testing message deletion feature

This will no doubt be controversial. WABetaInfo has reported that WhatsApp is developing a new option which would enable users to set their WhatsApp messages to auto-delete after a set time limit. The new option, if it is rolled out, will let people set their messages to auto-delete within each chat. When a user chooses to enable auto-delete, they'll also be able to pick a time limit – from an hour, up to a year – before their messages are erased.

Instagram initiates IGTV monetisation

After its coming IGTV monetisation tools were spotted in testing last month, Instagram has now confirmed that it's reaching out to a group of selected creators in order to invite them to participate in the initial testing of in-stream ads on their IGTV videos. As reported by Bloomberg: "Instagram started reaching out to its top video creators last Friday, asking them to partner on ad tests. Those in the program will receive a 55% share of all advertising in IGTV, the same rate as YouTube, according to people familiar with the matter. The company will start testing the ads this spring."