Facebook does something useful

By destroying herd immunity, anti-vaxxers kill babies.  That surely deserves some sanction.  There's a lot more than free speech involved

Facebook declares war on anti-vaxxers and vows to stop the spread of ‘misinformation’

Facebook has vowed to clamp down on anti-vaccination groups and reduce the audience available to pages that ‘spread misinformation’ on the subject. The social network said it will also reject any adverts it finds include false information on the topic and will not show or recommend any content from Facebook and Instagram it deems to be spreading misinformation.

It comes after criticism of the platform over the way its algorithm highlighted content that promotes anti-vaccination ideas. Last week the head of NHS England warned ‘vaccination deniers’ were gaining traction on social media as part of a ‘fake news’ movement.

In an official blog post, Facebook’s vice president of global policy management Monika Bickert said: ‘We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.

‘Leading global health organisations, such as the World Health Organisation 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.’

The social network previously said it was looking into how it approached the issue in a way that enabled freedom of expression but also supported the safety of users.

Other platforms have also taken action on the subject – YouTube has removed adverts from anti-vaccination videos and Pinterest has taken action to block vaccination searches.

SOURCE