Facebook combatting Vaccine Misinformation!
Photo Cred: On File | Supplied

The social media giant will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in the News Feed and Search!

 

Johannesburg, South Africa – Facebook is working to tackle vaccine misinformation on the social media platform by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.

Leading global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes. If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, the social media platform will immediately take action against them.

“For example, if a group or Page admin posts this vaccine misinformation, we will exclude the entire group or Page from recommendations, reduce these groups and Pages’ distribution in News Feed and Search, and reject ads with this misinformation.”

Facebook also believe in providing people with additional context so they can decide whether to read, share, or engage in conversations about the information they see on the social media platform.

“We are exploring ways to give people more accurate information from expert organizations about vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on Pages discussing the topic, and on invitations to join groups about the topic. We will have an update on this soon.”

The social media giant is starting by taking a series of steps:

  • Reducing the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in the News Feed and Search. These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search.
  • When Facebook find Ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, they will reject them. They have also removed related targeting options, like “vaccine controversies.” For Ad accounts that continue to violate their policies, they may take further action, such as disabling the Ad account.
  • They won’t show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.
  • They are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic.

 

Facebook is fully committed to the safety of the community and will continue to expand on this work.


Sources: Facebook
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Recognised as one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South African’s as well as a Primedia LeadSA Hero, Brent is a change maker, thought leader, radio host, foodie, vlogger, writer and all round good guy.

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