Facebook announced this week that it will award $100 million in grants and ad credits to small businesses. The $100 million grant is designed to help small businesses recover from the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus crisis.
According to a report by Forbes, Facebook will give $100 million in grants and ad credits to small businesses that are struggling during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced the grant in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them. We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work,” Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post. “That’s why today I’m announcing that Facebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 small businesses in over 30 countries where our employees live and work.”
Sandberg went on to argue that small businesses are the “heartbeat” of American society. She expressed concern that the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak poses a substantial risk to small business owners and their families.
“Small businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, and many of the people who run these businesses are heavily affected by the crisis – especially as more and more people sensibly stay home. The longer the crisis goes on, the greater the risk to small businesses and to the livelihoods of their owners and employees,” Sandberg added.
Breitbart News reported this week that Facebook would provide free advertising to the World Health Organization to prevent the spread of misinformation. In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he would prevent users from spreading information that puts people in danger
We’re also focused on stopping hoaxes and harmful misinformation. It’s important that everyone has a place to share their experiences and talk about the outbreak, but as our community standards make clear, it’s not okay to share something that puts people in danger. So we’re removing false claims and conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations. We’re also blocking people from running ads that try to exploit the situation — for example, claiming that their product can cure the disease.
Facebook also announced this week that they will provide resources for small businesses that will provide advice on how they may be able to stay connected with customers during the outbreak.