Tech giants, Facebook, Reddit, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube on Tuesday issued a joint industry statement on how the companies were combating the global coronavirus pandemic.

“We are working closely together on COVID-19 response efforts. We are helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combatting fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in coordination with government healthcare agencies around the world. We invite other companies to join us as we work to keep our communities healthy and safe,” the companies said in a joint public statement.

The tech majors have been previously taken steps to individually fight COVID-19 related misinformation on their platforms and to contribute tech solutions to help netizens during the outbreak.

Microsoft, for example, recently launched an interactive map on Bing which lets citizens track the situation of the outbreak in particular countries and also get links to media reports and videos on the same. Google is also working on similar solutions. The search giant has also banned unreliable apps related to coronavirus on its Play Store. Google Play also published a website called “Coronavirus: Stay informed” with suggested apps, including software from the CDC, Red Cross, and Twitter.

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter had drawn plans to fight misinformation earlier in January. For instance, Facebook began removing fake claims and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.

The platforms are also linking coronavirus search results to more authoritative resources such as the CDC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 1,67,000 people across the globe with over 6600 casualties as of Monday according to the World Health Organization.

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