Facebook Launches Interactive Chinese Virus ‘Symptom Map’

Facebook has launched an interactive map based on self-reported symptoms of the Chinese virus, showing the number of reported symptoms per U.S. county.

The reports are based on ongoing surveys by Carnegie Mellon University. Facebook assures participants in the survey, who must opt-in, that their privacy will be protected.

“Every day, a new sample of Facebook users over 18 years old within the United States are invited to participate in the survey,” says the company. “Facebook doesn’t receive, collect or store individual survey responses, and CMU doesn’t learn who took the survey.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the goal is to help state governments and public health officials.

Via NBC:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the goal is to give state officials a sense of where they may need to direct resources, such as personal protective equipment, or PPE.

“Overall, since experiencing symptoms is a precursor to going to the hospital or becoming more seriously ill, these maps could be an important tool for governments and public health officials to make decisions on how to allocate scarce resources like ventilators and PPE, and eventually when it’s safe to start re-opening society,” Zuckerberg said.

“I think providing aggregate data to governments and health officials is one of the most important tools tech companies can provide.”

In other Facebook news, the company has confirmed that it will be banning attempts to use the platform to organize protests against state lockdowns. This came after President Trump lent his support to protesters in multiple states, including Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia.

Zuckerberg confirmed to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Facebook considers the protests “harmful misinformation,” and is now banning them from the platform.