" ITREALMS: Facebook enters battle over vaccine misinformation - ITREALMS

Friday, March 08, 2019

Facebook enters battle over vaccine misinformation - ITREALMS

Facebook has advanced strategies to combat vaccine misinformation, reports ITREALMS.

According to the Vice President, Global Policy Management at Facebook, Ms Monika Bickert they are looking at reducing the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in news feed and search.

"We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic. We are starting by taking a series of steps," she said.

These groups and pages, she said, will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when people type into search.

"When we find ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, we will reject them. We also removed related targeting options, like 'vaccine controversies.' For ad accounts that continue to violate our policies, we may take further action, such as disabling the ad account," she said.

Facebook, she insisted would not show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.

Further, she revealed that they are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this 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, we will take action against them," she declared.

Chuks Egbune/DoP

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