Inside WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok, A Race to Build COVID-19 Tools

As soon as the coronavirus outbreak began, Aleksandra Kuzmanovic knew tech companies would have an important role to play in stopping the spread of the virus. As the social media manager for the World Health Organization, she'd been in contact with Facebook, Twitter and others over the last year about combatting vaccine misinformation on the platforms.

The global spread of COVID-19, she knew, would pose an even greater challenge.

Over the past two months, the organization has collaborated with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat and WhatsApp, among other platforms, which have all become de facto emergency response networks in the face of this crisis. Even as surging usage has made it a struggle to "keep the lights on," as Mark Zuckerberg recently put it, employees at major social networks have sprung into action, building tools to weed out misinformation, surface reputable sources, and encourage people to connect in new ways at what is, for many, an acutely lonely time.