In a significant move, Facebook announced that it will remove all misleading claims and misinformation about Facebook and Instagram’s COVID-19 vaccines.
It is part of a broader movement to help combat false news about the pandemic. Since December, the platform has been removing complaints about the coronavirus that have been unmasked by health experts.
But on Monday, the company expanded this policy and is now specifically targeting common antivax claims.
“Today, after consultation with major health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims that we will remove to include other unmasked claims about coronavirus and vaccines,” Guy Rosen, VP of Health Integrity Facebook, wrote in a blog update.
This includes claims such as:
- COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured
- Vaccines are not effective in preventing the disease against which they are intended to protect
- It is safer to get the disease than getting the vaccine
- Vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism
Facebook will also remove fictional claims that the vaccine will change people’s DNA or make them infertile, as well as false claims about where the vaccines are made or their effectiveness.
But how do we know that SARS-CoV-2 was not made in a laboratory?
The researchers know that SARS-CoV-2 was not made in the laboratory because, if it were, there would be evidence of manipulation in the genetic data.
Thousands of scientists around the world have sequenced the genome of the virus that causes COVID-19 and released its results, and there are no traces of the genome being modified by the tools we have.
Are vaccines safe?
Although vaccine production has been accelerated, all approved COVID-19 vaccines have undergone the same rigorous clinical tests in the laboratory as well as in humans, like any other vaccine on the market.
There is a plethora of safety data available on vaccines, and although there are some rare people who may be allergic to an ingredient in one of the vaccines – which is the case with any drug – the results show the vaccines being approved for use they are safe for human use and effective.
But what about freedom of expression?
The technology giant says it has already removed more than 12 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram, which contained “incorrect information that could lead to imminent physical damage”.
And since April, the company has placed warning labels on about 50 million pieces of content.
Facebook also announced on Monday that it will grant non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies and ministries of health $ 120 million in advertising credits to help spread the COVID-19 vaccine and preventive health information.
“In 2021, we are focused on supporting health leaders and public officials in their work to vaccinate billions of people against COVID-19,” wrote Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook’s chief of health, in a statement.
Of course, Facebook has not always been so vigilant against misinformation. Studies have shown that the social media company has been a vehicle for spreading fake news and fueling polarization.
But in the wake of the pandemic, and particularly since the Capitol riots on January 6, the platform has been more open in its fight against disinformation.
Many people may see these changes as an attack on freedom of expression. But the reality is that much of what we see on social media is cured by fake accounts and bots, often created with the aim of sowing division and spreading misinformation.
In fact, a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University in May last year found that between 45 and 60 percent of Twitter accounts that share information on COVID-19 were probably bots. Many of them were spreading narratives that the United States should reopen in the early days of the pandemic blockades.
To put this in perspective, during elections in the United States and abroad, political events and natural disasters, bots generally account for about 10 to 20 percent of the discussion.
Social media researcher Jeanna Matthews of Clarkson University in New York last year discussed whether social media platforms like Facebook should be in a more favorable position.
“Failure to act is often justified by concerns about freedom of expression,” she wrote for The Conversation.
“Does freedom of expression include the right to create 100,000 fake accounts for the express purpose of spreading lies, division and chaos?”
You can read the full list of COVID-19 claims that Facebook will no longer allow on the platform here (note: some people are reporting that Facebook has not yet released the new guidelines for them, so it can be a gradual process).