LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Social media and other online platforms are being used as a way to spread myths and misinformation about COVID-19.

However, one local professor and his students are helping to serve the community to help stop the spread of fake information about the virus.

Dr. Nitin Agarwal, a professor of Information Science at UALR and his team of students have created a website designed to help monitor and analyze misinformation found online about the coronavirus.

The group called the COSMOS (Collaboratorum for Social Media and Online Behavior Studies) use the website they developed to not only help track, but debunks false information about the virus.

It allows users to submit info you may find about COVID-19 to have verified for its authenticity.

“You can report that to us through our website and there on the website we also have a link there where you can report such cases where you’re not sure if this is misinformation or not and then we go in systemically through cyber forensic analyst to check if that information is true or not,” said Dr. Agarwal.

The group has gained lots of attention and has partnered with several local agencies like the offices of Arkansas Attorney General and U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

If you need help in identifying, understanding, and reporting misinformation, fake websites, and scams regarding COVID-19 click here to visit their website.