Pinterest

  • On March 24, Pinterest announced it is “moving up [the] launch of the Today tab, a source of daily inspiration with curated topics and trending Pins that makes it easy to explore popular and timely ideas”. The previous weekend, Pinterest experienced an all-time high around the world with more saves and searches on the platform than any other weekend in its history. The new tab, which will live above the home feed, will include expert information from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control on topics like hand washing during the coronavirus epidemic.

  • On March 24, Pinterest also noted that searches for “calming quotes” doubled and “stress relief” and "stress quotes" have tripled, so they have expanded “compassionate search” from the apps to the web. When users search for terms like “stress relief” they will see emotional wellbeing activities from emotional health experts.[1] Pinterest claims these interactions are kept private and aren’t used to inform recommendations or ads.[2]

  • On March 24, VentureBeat reported that Pinterest uses AI to fight misinformation about COVID-19 on its platform, leveraging a machine learning system to identify pins it believes violate its health misinformation policy. Its model finds keywords or text associated with misinformation and blocks pins with that language, while at the same time identifying visual representations associated with medical misinformation.

  • Pinterest’s normal strict approach to combating health misinformation likely results in less content about the coronavirus than on any other major social platform. Anyone searching for terms related to the virus is sent to a sparse page with content from the World Health Organization. Users will see a message noting, “Pins about this topic often violate our Community Guidelines, which prohibit harmful medical misinformation. Because of this, we've limited search results to Pins from internationally-recognized health organizations.”[3]

  • Normal misinformation policy prohibits promotion of false cures, or the saving of content that includes advice where there may be immediate and detrimental effects on a Pinner’s health or on public safety. Pinterest relies on information from nationally and internationally recognized institutions, including the CDC and WHO, to help determine if content violates these guidelines.[4]

  • Added a banner to coronavirus search results in January to warn about misinformation and rolled out a custom results page in February.

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