Coronavirus: Fake News purveyor to help fight misinformation

Essex Coronavirus Action has been launched with the support of local Facebook group administrators

A man who runs a self-proclaimed Fake News parody page is helping health officials to combat coronavirus misinformation.

Simon Harris, who runs the spoof Southend News Network, is working with Essex council and public health team to keep residents informed.

The Facebook page Essex Coronavirus Action has been launched to support the community during the pandemic.

Admins from local pages are helping to co-ordinate volunteering efforts.

The council said the group's aim was to prevent people undertaking activities which would put them at risk, assist vulnerable members of the community and ensure they were receiving the correct information.

The action group is also calling for individuals and businesses willing to volunteer to get in touch so that their details can be put in a database for those co-ordinating local efforts.

In its launch announcement, the group said: "We want the people of Essex to have a source of information that they can trust amongst the recent explosion of inaccurate, misleading, and often dangerous coronavirus-related content that is out there.

Mr Harris added: "Anyone who knows me will be aware that I have been running the moderately successful fake news page Southend News Network for a number of years.

"In these unprecedented times local government have realised that they could probably do with this weird skillset to help the county's residents and businesses fight back against fake news about coronavirus that now has the potential to do a serious amount of harm."

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