Hillicon Valley: Tech confronts impact of coronavirus | House GOP offers resolution to condemn UK over Huawei | YouTube lays out plans to tackle 2020 misinformation

by Emily Birnbaum,Maggie Miller and Chris Mills Rodrigo - 02/03/20 7:31 PM ET

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Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and the tech team, Emily Birnbaum (@birnbaum_e) and Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills).

CORONAVIRUS CHALLENGES TECH: Major American tech companies are facing a new challenge as they grapple with the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.

In recent days, tech companies have closed stores and offices, restricted executives and workers from traveling to the country and warned about the potential effects on their supply chains.

The pneumonia-like disease has infected at least 17,000 people and has led to 300 deaths, all but one of which have been in China. The rapid spread of the disease has already had economic repercussions in China, where stocks dropped 8 percent Monday after markets reopened for the first trading session since Jan. 23.

Experts have warned that the outbreak in the world’s most populous country and an economic superpower could threaten global growth this year.

But the effects could be particularly felt by the U.S. tech industry, which has depended on China both as a major market for its goods and as a critical supplier of components for a number of consumer products.

Financial analysts at Goldman Sachs on Monday predicted Chinese gross domestic product growth would drop 1.6 percentage points compared to first quarter last year, which they estimate would slow growth 1 percentage point globally over the same period.

Producers of smartphones and other consumer electronics could face steeper hits from the loss of revenue and productivity, according to the firm’s equity research team. Beyond the factories in Wuhan, where the disease originated, manufacturing throughout China could be affected. The outbreak coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year, which sees millions traveling throughout the country.

Read more here.

CORONAVIRUS MISINFO: The world’s top social media platforms are facing their own challenges, as they try to push users toward fact-driven and reputable sources about the deadly coronavirus.

But wild conspiracy theories and misleading advice about the coronavirus are continuing to spread largely unabated on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and other networks with billions of users overall.

U.S. lawmakers, many of whom are working to publicize trustworthy information about the little-understood health epidemic, say they want the platforms to do more to stave off the wave of misinformation.

House Democrats take note: “These lies can cause immediate and tangible harm to people, and the platforms must act to stop them from spreading,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a statement to The Hill.

“It’s critical that Americans receive verified, trustworthy information about the coronavirus and heed the advice of our country’s public health officials as we learn more about its potential impact here at home,” Pallone said.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a member of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee focused on health, sent a letter Friday to the heads of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok pressing them to do more to curb coronavirus disinformation.

“During a global health emergency, it is vital to the public interest that individuals have access to timely and accurate information,” she wrote.

“As expert’s knowledge and understanding about this virus grows, so too will the necessity of accurate and reliable information for the world,” Dingell added. “As global companies, a rampant spread of inaccurate information will have a decidedly negative impact on the response efforts to contain and mitigate this global health emergency.”

The debunked narratives: So far, experts who spoke to The Hill said they are monitoring several specific strains of misinformation, including conspiracy theories that the U.S. or Chinese government created the virus, false rumors linking billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates to the disease, and a debunked narrative that the coronavirus was caused by Chinese people drinking “bat soup.” Many of the falsehoods and narratives that gained traction this week have racist undertones, implying the eating habits of Chinese people are to blame for the outbreak.

Dr. Arthur Caplan, the founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s School of Medicine, told The Hill that much of the rhetoric he has come across online has a “xenophobic” tone.

What the platforms are doing: The social media giants — Twitter, Facebook and Google — have chosen to fight the spread of coronavirus-related misinformation in part by promoting authoritative sources. When a user searches “coronavirus” on Twitter, for instance, they are met with a banner that reads “know the facts,” with a link to the CDC’s summary page on the illness.

“We’ve launched a new dedicated search prompt to ensure that when you come to the service for information about the #coronavirus, you’re met with credible, authoritative information first,” Twitter wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

Facebook, meanwhile, announced Thursday that it will surface “educational pop-up[s] with credible information” when users search for information related to the virus based on guidance from the WHO.