Facebook has detailed its new strategy to curb the spread of vaccine misinformation on both its primary social media platform as well as Instagram. Broadly, these include efforts to scale back the prominence of (but not outright ban) certain flagged groups, pages and search results, as well as the adoption of a firm stance against advertising content together with false statements concerning vaccination.
“Leading world health organizations, like The World Health
Organization and the U.S.A. Centers for disease control and prevention,
have in public identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes,” Monika Bickert,
VP of global policy
management at Facebook, wrote in a news
post on the company’s website.
“If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we’ll take action against them.”
Bickert gave the example of a
group or page admin posting inaccurate info concerning vaccination.
Once identified, Facebook
would cut that group or
page from its automated recommendations
and limit how usually they’re surfaced among search
results or the News Feed. Similarly, the corporate said that it’d not be showing or
recommending this type of material through
Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.
In the advertising space, Bickert said that
any ads including vaccine misinformation are
going to be rejected, and
that targeting choices associated with the topic have already been
removed. Facebook may
additionally fully disable ad accounts that are repeat
offenders.
“We additionally believe in providing individuals with extra context in order that they can decide whether to browse, share, or interact in conversations concerning info they see on Facebook,”
Bickert wrote. “We are exploring ways
in which to give individuals additional accurate info from expert organizations concerning vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on Pages
discussing the subject, and
on invitations to join groups concerning the subject. We’ll have an update on this before long.”
Vaccine-preventable diseases like measles are on the
rise, with variety of identified outbreaks across
the U.S.A. coinciding with
recent information from CDC and academic researchers
suggesting a rise in vaccine exemption rates. Many over the years have mentioned how social media platforms can facilitate disseminating misleading health info, with the debate coming to a head this past
week during a Senate
panel hearing that specifically highlighted the role Facebook has played in the growing public health threat.
A conscious effort
by the corporate may limit the spread of such misinformation, and will probably facilitate to
limit a broader anti-vaccination
movement that’s mostly dependent on debunked links to developmental diseases and an interest in preserving individual liberties
at the cost of public
health.