News Social Media Facebook Messenger Launches Free Tools for Government and Agencies They're using Messenger to help scale response to the COVID-19 crisis by Senior News Editor Rob LeFebvre has been a freelance technology writer for 10 years and an educator for 20. His articles have appeared in 148Apps, Cult of Mac, Engadget, and many others. our editorial process Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Rob LeFebvre Published March 23, 2020 01:31PM EDT Tweet Share Email Social Media Phones Internet & Security Computers Smart & Connected Life Home Theater Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming View More Why This Matters Governments and agencies will need all the help they can get to reach as many people with solid, reliable information about the COVID-19 crisis. Facebook is helping them do just that. Facebook launched two related initiatives to help governments and UN health agencies combat the coronavirus pandemic: free Messenger development for governments and a hackathon to encourage innovation from developers. What they said: "We’re partnering with our developer community to provide free services to government health organizations and UN health agencies to help them use Messenger to scale their response to the COVID-19 crisis." Facebook says Argentina's Ministry of Health is already using Messenger to provide "timely and reliable information about coronavirus." Wait, there's more: Facebook is recruiting Messenger developers to participate in an online hackathon to "build messaging solutions that address challenges related to the coronavirus such as social distancing and keeping people educated and informed." Examples include Facebook Live tutorials or other educational experiences to help support us during these trying times. The winning developers will get mentoring from Facebook engineers to implement their ideas more fully, and will be invited, flown, and hosted at F8 2021 (this year's F8 developer conference was canceled). The bottom line: The best way to fight the COVID-19 virus is to follow the recommendations of scientists and world health organizations. Fighting the spread of misinformation is just as important as connecting with each other via tools like Messenger. Pairing government agencies along with innovative developers is a great way to make sure we have all the information and online connections that we need during this crisis. Become an Expert on Messenger Make Free Voice Calls and Texts from Facebook Messenger Facebook Messenger: Everything You Need to Know Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit