Covid-19 will have many loses, but tech giants are using the pandemic to make progress as millions of people are quarantined continue working or studying from home using digital platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams or House Party. The usage of social media like Facebook or Instagram has significantly increased.

While the entire world continues facing the coronavirus pandemic, many companies such as food delivery, online shopping, work communication apps and entertainment and news media are becoming stronger every day while helping users to have a better quarantine time.

It is also true that the coronavirus created an opportunity for computing giants, but tech industry has been helping their users through the economic issues that we are facing:

• Amazon orders have grown so much that the company has been forced to select essential items such as food, toilet paper, self-care products and soap as “priority shipping”.
• Google has been providing free access to some of its remote work tools.
• AT&T, Comcast and Verizon are helping their American users who are unable to pay their bills by letting them to preserve their phone or/and internet service. They also assumed their company will help while offering free Wi-Fi spots to people who needs them.
• TikTok is working together with the World Health Organization to provide their users accurate information about the pandemic while they use the “#coronavirus” hashtag.
• Apple has released a new app, called “Covid-19”, which consists in asking their users some questions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This important tech company also donated 10,000,000 face masks to health care workers around the world.
• Facebook have been fighting against bots which provided false information to their users, causing panic among the society. This important social network has pushed back against dangerous false cures. They donated 720,000 face masks to health workers.
• Microsoft working together with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has developed a health care chatbot which is a tool that brings users questions and answers about Covid-19.

Unfortunately, during this crisis, users have been experiencing a big lack of true information, and believe almost everything they see on the internet:

• YouTube cracks down on misinformation while promoting videos which shows unproven coronavirus treatments and exaggerating the number of infected victims. In order to avoid this, social media platforms continue working with artificial intelligence tools in order to moderate content.

Remember, during this time of crisis, it is important to not panic and stay informed by using these platforms. Even if it is a complicated time for most businesses, the technology has allowed for some companies to move forward and keep the community informed.