After years of criticism about the misinformation prevalent on platform , the social media platform has decided to ban all fake news related to vaccines.
As part of its policy on Covid-19 -related misinformation , Facebook will now remove posts with false claims about all vaccines, the company announced in a blog post on Monday
These new guidelines apply to user -generated posts , as well as paid ads, which were already banned from including such misinformation. Instagram users will face the same restrictions.
“We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, Groups, and accounts that violate these rules,” said Guy Rosen, who oversees content decisions. “We will continue to expand our enforcement in the coming weeks.”
For many months, several Facebook groups have been created that spread false news about vaccines, trying to influence users not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. These groups will now be removed.
Facebook has repeatedly updated its policies on Covid-19 content as the pandemic. In April 2020, it began adding a set of CDC facts to posts about Covid-19 to combat misinformation. It has often made fake news posts about the vaccine less visible on its platform, but has stopped short of removing them.
However, since December, the company has tightened its policies and started removing posts related to Covid-19. This has included posts suggesting that vaccines contain microchips , claims that wearing masks does not help prevent the spread of Covid-19, and that 5G technology contributes to or causes Covid-19 infections.
Facebook will now expand this ban, tackling false claims about Covid-19 that claim vaccines are not effective in preventing the disease or that it is safer to contract the disease than to get the vaccine.
The ban doesn't stop at Covid-related content. It also targets fake news related to other vaccines, such as claims that they cause autism. Facebook has faced criticism in recent months for its handling of Covid-19 misinformation.
