Facebook will directly notify users who have liked, shared or commented on posts that have been categorised and taken down as Covid-19 misinformation, according to a report by Fast Company.

Users who have engaged with Covid-19 misinformation that has been taken down for violating the platform’s policies will now receive a notification that reads, “We removed a post you liked that had false, potentially harmful information about Covid-19,” as per the report.

The social media major introduced the concept of notifying users about misinformation related to the pandemic earlier this year. The platform used to display a banner on the news feed of the users who had interacted with misinformation that had been removed.

However, it will now directly notify the users to provide more context about why a post was removed with more information on the topic.

The notification will lead users to a landing page containing a thumbnail image of the content removed along with a description of why the content that they liked, shared, or commented on was removed from the platform.

It will also offer users the option to leave the group that initially posted the misinformation or to “see facts” about Covid-19, as per the report.

Valerio Magliulo, a product manager at Facebook who worked on the new notification system, told Fast Company that the new notifications were introduced to help people better understand why a post was removed.

This is part of a broader attempt from the platform to combat Covid-19 misinformation. Earlier this month, Facebook announced its plans to monitor better misinformation related to Covid-19 vaccines. The platform will now remove false claims pertaining to Covid-19 vaccines from Facebook and Instagram.

“Given the recent news that Covid-19 vaccines will soon be rolling out around the world, over the coming weeks we will start removing false claims about these vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts on Facebook and Instagram,” Facebook had said in a blog post.

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