Last week, even as it came under attack from the White House for its role in spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, Facebook (FB) had not taken the simple step of banning the hashtag #VaccinesKill from platform .
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Now the hashtag has been banned from Facebook.
The change came hours after CNN Business asked Facebook why it was so easy to find anti-vaccine hoaxes. The same thing happened to Instagram two years ago, during one of the company's previous attempts to convince people that it was actually doing a great job moderating anti-vaccine content.
The existence of #VaccinesKill content was noted by CNN last weekend after President Joe Biden accused Facebook of “killing people” by letting lies spread on its platforms.
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Biden later walked back the statement and focused his anger on individuals and organizations using Facebook to spread misinformation.
It remains quite difficult to handle the scope of the problem. There are truly infinite parts to the site, and there are egregious violations of Facebook's policies aimed at containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
A review of the hashtag #VaccinesKill revealed posts from ordinary users with messages saying they fear that “vaccines are literally eating people’s brains” and dark forces are starting a “population reduction plan.” Other posts warned people not to “insert this software into their system” and said “if you love your children, then don’t let them pierce them!”
Similar misinformation-filled posts also appeared under the hashtag #VaccinesKill on Instagram in 2019.
See also: TikTok: How it was used to spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines
Then, before the Covid-19 pandemic, CNN Business wrote about harmful content on Instagram, and Instagram responded by blocking the hashtag #VaccinesKill.
But the hashtag remained active on Facebook. “The process for determining whether a hashtag violates our policies takes into account many factors, including the percentage of content using the hashtag that violates it,” a Facebook spokesperson said in response to questions. Facebook said it also removes individual posts with hashtags “that violate our Community Standards when it becomes aware of them.
