to switch to online school, helping them pass the extra time and help cope with the situation. during the pandemic many challenges spread across social media, potentially to link individuals to one another and to bring entertainment of the individual's attempts. one such challenge was the no. see10do10 which involves the individual doing 10 push-ups and recreating it, others included baby photos, dance challenges, and voting in candy and chocolate march madness bracket voting. another instance, the v-pop hit "ghen" by artists erik and men was remixed by lyricists khắc hưng and supported vietnam's national institute of occupational safety and health to create the song "ghen cô vy." the song encourages listeners to wash their hands and became viral when vietnam dancer quang đăng posted a dance to the song on tiktok and started the #ghencovychallenge. teens have also started making tiktok videos sharing about their life in quarantine. teens use this platform to make funny videos about life in lockdown to relate to other teens and keep them entertained. from january 2020 to march, tiktok saw a 48.3% increase in unique visitors. makeup artists on youtube have altered their videos to produce make-up looks that work around wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the pandemic. the actors fund, a charitable organization posts a lifestream of the phantom of the opera performance from london's royal albert hall as a fundraiser for 48-hours in april. the performance of phoebe waller-bridges's stage performance of fleabag was also used as a charity fundraiser and for entertainment. authors, musicians, actors, actresses and dancers put together many concerts, live streams of previous productions, readings, and productions that were live-streamed either for free, for an entrance fee or suggested charitable donation. spreading information social media has been used by news outlets, organizations, and the general public to spread both valid information and misinformation about the pandemic. the cdc, who, medical journals, and health care organizations have been updating and spreading information across numerous platforms with partnerships with facebook, google scholar, tiktok, and twitter. others such as an attending emergency medicine physician in the new york hospital system have been using their social media accounts to report first hand accounts of working to combat covid-19. it was reported on 8 april, that covid-19 conversations around disease states have increased 1,000% around healthcare professionals and 2,500% among consumers based on a social listening study from 1 january to 19 march. pilot research examined whether u.s. trust in science changed between december 2019 and march 2020 after hypothesizing that the amount of public discussion and research would improve it, but the study reported a null finding. doctors are also joining groups on social media to spread information about treating the disease with one group on facebook, the pmg covid-19 subgroup on facebook reporting some 30,000 members worldwide by the end of march. another group, physician moms group, which was started five years prior to the pandemic had so many people wanting to join the 70,000 strong group that facebook click-to-join code broke and 10,000 additional doctors waited for it to be fixed. the groups have allowed medical professionals to collaborate with one another, gather information and help direct supplies to hospitals that need them. medical professionals have also used social media in an effort to educate the general population about the impact of working in ppe for upwards of twelve-hour shifts, utilizing a trend that showcased their faces after their shifts and their masks are removed. many of the individuals who participated had bruises, indents, redness and even bandaids covering blisters formed by the masks sitting tight on their faces for hours. social media has also been used to provide audio and video "diaries" of the pandemic as it has unfolded. podcasts such as coronavirus today provide time stamped updates. the video library a doctor in the pandemic is another example. on the other hand, social media is very important for governments during the pandemic. the chinese government uses social media to publish scientific knowledge about covid-19 and uses common language to help people understand it. researchers find that if governments can use social media correctly, this way can decrease the panic of people and help society to remain stable. the government should take the initiative to guide the public in popular language on social media to reduce the spread of misinformation and help maintain social stability and reduce panic. timely information is very important. people should also trust official information based on evidence. the national library of medicine found that social media had a mostly positive influence on the pandemic by raising awareness of new rules, information and safety instructions. this usage promoted health all around the internet and gave "normal people" platforms to share their experiences in the pandemic and what was helping them. in many ways, instagram stories and things like that allowed people to connect easily and see guidelines from reputable sources because they could be shared so quickly. fighting an infodemic covid-19 has increased the world health organizations (who) usage of social media as well. the platform who information network for epidemics was created after covid-19 was declared a public health emergency. the 20 person staff work to provide evidence-based answers to combat rumors found across platforms and ensure any “coronavirus” search across social media platforms, as well as google, directs them to the who website or center for disease control providing reliable information. on 18 january 2021, the uk parliament, in the presence of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, held a session to combat misinformation regarding the covid-19 pandemic on social networking and internet media platforms. the session had a panel of behavioral science experts and another of media representatives of major organizations including, facebook, sky news, and reuters. the united nations launched the united nations communications response initiative in april 2020 with the aim of reducing the spread of misinformation about the pandemic with the stated goal of reducing hate speech and preventing pandemic disinformation and misinformation from causing political polarization online. the united nations, on may 11, 2020, also issued a further guidance note on addressing and countering covid-19 related hate speech, which further aimed to reduce the problems of hate speech and misinformation online. also in may 2020, the who member states passed a resolution called resolution wha73.1. its stated goals were to get member states to take a more active role in publishing content that informs the public about the pandemic, as well as preventing the spread of misinformation about it that can hurt peoples' ability to respond to the virus. international organizations were also addressed in the same resolution for much of the same reasons, with the who intent on preventing the spread of misinformation via technology and the spread of peer reviewed, science-backed academic data to be shown worldwide to inform people of the situation. limitations in the use of social media to spread information although social media has proven beneficial to spread credible information, it is vital to acknowledge its limitations. the effects of social media are not the same for all populations. older demographics do not use social media in the same ways as younger populations, as most still rely on traditional means of communication. about 69 percent of those aged between 50 and 64 use some sort of social media, so it is crucial to find other ways to reach the other 31 percent of the older population. social media also lacks scientific surveillance. there is no peer review needed in order to post content online, which leads to the constant generation of false information. social media websites have fact-check teams, but it is impossible to have every post online checked by a human. misinformation main article: misinformation related to the covid-19 pandemic mit technology review has called the covid-19 pandemic "the first true social-media 'infodemic'" since during this time social media has become the main source of information and ultimate channel for communication and interaction. national geographic has reported on an increased level of "fake animal news" on social media during the pandemic. studies in the past have shown how people have stopped getting their information from browsers, and other search methods in favor of relying on social media. this information can strongly influence behaviors and limit cohesion and therefore the effectiveness of government countermeasures to the virus since government can easily manipulate our opinion. there is preliminary evidence that people's trust in science and scientists is associated with how believable they find covid-19 misinformation to be, though the researchers encouraged caution in interpreting the finding pending further study. much of the youth get their information and news updates from different social media platforms. for example, twitter has a whole page dedicated to news updates. while there is some factual information being spread from social media users, some information is posted by non-human “bot” accounts. the perceived difficulty in discerning whether information on twitter, or any other social media platform, is coming from a reliable source or generated by a bot, has led to varied levels of suspicion and distrust among users. cases of propaganda and misinformation can vary by country. misinformation can be spread strategically, but it can sometimes be spread by accident. misinformation has the potential to make the pandemic more dangerous than it already is. the algorithms behind some social platforms may have intrinsically promoted the spread of misinformation. this was due to an increase in ai usage as many human moderators were sent home during shelter in place orders and faced contract restrictions and couldn't continue their work at home. this system failed to prevent covid-19 misinformation from spreading as well as took down other valuable information and links to articles. fox news reported on facebook, groups opposing vaccines and those campaigning against 5g mobile phone networks created unwanted rumors. the stop 5g french group on facebook 5g and other groups posted an article from bbc news that claims: "it is becoming pretty clear that the hunan coronavirus is an engineered bio-weapon that was either purposely or accidentally released." online rumors have led to mob attacks in india and mass poisonings in iran, with telecommunications engineers threatened and attacked and phone masts set on fire in the united kingdom. social media is the primary source of misinformation. moreover, social media was a reason for covid-19 spreading in china. misinformation has been spread in the form of reports that fireworks will kill the virus in the air, as well as vinegar and indigowoad root curing an infection. this misinformation was spread via the messaging app messenger. citizens have also bought an excess of materials and supplies, which has depleted the number of supplies available to professionals. old and unsubstantiated information has also been spread as factual, seen with the rise of the reported benefits of hydroxychloroquine, even though the who has ended trials around the product as it may increase the risk of patients dying from covid-19. misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding covid-19 have been flagged, removed, or otherwise limited by facebook and instagram on their social media platforms. for example, facebook stopped scourging claims that include fake cures and methods of prevention. facebook's third-party fact-checkers did not work to limit the spread of false content by sending links to fact-checked information to the accounts who were attempting or who already shared the content in order to notify them and provide correct information. a may 2021 study found just 3 people responsible for 85% of the covid-19 vaccine misinformation on social media, with a scattering of blocks for some of the "disinformation dozen". surprisingly, when misinformation spreads on social media, older people often find these false messages. from the who researches, researchers found that more less than 40% of gen z and millennials surveyed are aware of “fake news” surrounding covid-19 and can often spot it. thus, many young people are affected by misinformation on social media. from the report by who, 60.1% of young people ignore misinformation on social media. so the challenge is not only to let people figure out what is misinformation, but also to recruit people to counter misinformation and fake news actively. usage by celebrities during the pandemic, many celebrities took to social media to interact with their fan bases and attempt to alleviate the situation through posts, acts