Facebook Is Finally Banning All Anti-Vaxx Misinformation

Facebook is continuing its mission to prevent misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines from being spread on its platform.

There were thousands of fake, misleading or deceptive posts about the Covid-19 pandemic that caused people to get confused about what was really happening.

People thought the virus started in a lab, that 5G was somehow involved, that the vaccine had a microchip in it designed to control people's minds, or that the pandemic was the beginning of the New World Order.

None of these have been backed up, but they've been shared widely.

Facebook announced at the tail end of last year that it would be banning anti-vaxx content and posts about the pandemic that were fake.

But now the social media platform is taking an even tougher approach to its policy.

It said in a blog post: "We are expanding our efforts to remove false claims on Facebook and Instagram about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic.

"Since December, we've removed false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts.

"Today, following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines."

The topics that will now be banned will be any posts that claim the coronavirus is man-made or manufactured, that vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against, that it's safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine, and that vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism.

Facebook added: "We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules, and we'll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks.

"Groups, Pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether.

"We are also requiring some admins for groups with admins or members who have violated our COVID-19 policies to temporarily approve all posts within their group.

"Claims about COVID-19 or vaccines that do not violate these policies will still be eligible for review by our third-party fact-checkers, and if they are rated false, they will be labeled and demoted."

Facebook has already banned anti-vaxx content from being included in ads.

The social media platform is also working on ensuring the search results don't take people to misinformation around coronavirus or the vaccine.

The company said it's committed to promote 'relevant, authoritative results and provide third-party resources to connect people to expert information about vaccines'.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Social Media, Facebook

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie