Facebook is expanding the false claims it will remove from its platforms related to the COVID-19, COVID-19 and general vaccines starting today. The company began removing COVID-19 claims unmasked in December last year and notifying customers when they interacted with a post that contained false information that same month. But now the list of potential complaints that could have a post removed has grown.
Highlights of the new expanded list of fake COVID-19 and vaccine-related claims that will be removed include:
- COVID-19 is man-made
- Vaccines are not effective in preventing the disease against which they were created
- It is safer to catch a disease than to get your vaccine
- Vaccines are dangerous, toxic or cause autism
Facebook says it will start applying this policy immediately, focusing on groups, pages and accounts that share content from its new list of unmasked claims. The company also says it would consider removing the fonts from the messages entirely if they became repeat offenders.
Notably, the company says it will only apply this change during the “COVID health emergency”, so while cracking down on these claims could be a major blow to the Facebook anti-vaccine movement, it may not last long. Even though it is brief, it is an important change, Facebook was a great source of misinformation about vaccines even before the pandemic and addressing it more directly could have a significant impact on people who could have become anti-xxxxxers.
Expanding what counts as COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation is a smart move for Facebook, but some people worry about the publications that can be picked up on the company’s new and larger disinformation network. Studies on the effectiveness of certain masks, vaccines and tests are still ongoing. As written, Facebook’s new guidelines may prevent conversations about new search results, such as Notes by Professor Zeynep Tufekci of UNC.
Looking at the list, Facebook may have to write down some actual current news and public health statements as well. We have ongoing clinical trials without a placebo, for example. (UK’s main heterologous reinforcement test) Also today’s reports on ChAdOx1? You may need to follow these guidelines. pic.twitter.com/iCCNi6eeBT
– zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) February 8, 2021
What else, Tufekci points, public health agencies’ recommendations changed during the course of the pandemic, which may mean that older posts from organizations like the World Health Organization may also be removed. The Verge contacted Facebook with these concerns and will update you if we know more.
In addition to these policy changes, Facebook is also making adjustments to the way factual information from COVID-19 is provided on Facebook and Instagram. The company will provide links to vaccine information and to sign up for a vaccine at its COVID-19 Information Center, and plans to take the feature to Instagram as well.
Facebook also says it is continually improving search on both platforms to reveal more “relevant and reliable results” when a user searches for something related to COVID-19, including showing users who discourage vaccination in lower search results on Instagram. Finally, Facebook is extending $ 120 million in advertising credits to “help ministries of health, NGOs and UN agencies” to spread information about the COVID-19 vaccine to billions of Facebook users.