Facebook and Instagram will soon display notifications that reminds people to wear their masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic.
What’s happening?
- Facebook and Instagram will both add a new message to the top of their feeds that remind people to wear masks.
- The alert will appear at the top of the News Feed section on Facebook. A link will direct people to the COVID-19 Information Center, which is packed with links from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Instagram will send users directly to the CDC.
Why now?
- The company decided to add these resources as cases of COVID-19 spike across the country. In fact, the U.S. daily cases hit 50,000 for the first time on Wednesday, a sign that the pandemic hasn’t come close to ending in the United States.
- The CDC currently recommends people wear masks in public to stop others from infection. Masks can reduce transmission of droplets from one person to the next, according to the CDC.