As countries around the world try to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, another kind of virus has been spreading online infecting milions of users with false information.

Large Facebook pages that push medical disinformation were recently banned by the platfrom after they were found to be spreading articles as trolls. According to NBC News' latest reports, Facebook pages from the Philippines and North Macedonia were banned from the social media platform after spreading false information about the ongoing global pandemic, the company announced on Friday, May 29. 

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Natural News, which is one of the most prolific publishers of the viral "Plandemic" conspiracy video, was included among the banned pages. The video has been widely debunked by scientists and medical experts. Meanwhile, the Facebook page also shares false information saying that the novel coronavirus is part of an elaborate government plot to control the populace using vaccines. It was also accused of spreading misinformation that face masks increase the risk of contracting the viral disease.  

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Large Facebook pages from the Philippines and North Macedonia are banned after they were found to be spreading coronavirus misinformation 

False coronavirus conspiracies theories about Bill Gates and 5G towers were also frequently posted by the anti-vaccination news site. Both conspiracy theories have been scientifically proven to be false. Facebook confirmed that Natural News content was repeatedly posted by the foreign trolls.

In an effort to artificially inflate their reach, the foreign trolls also posted content from the sister websites of Natural News; Brighteon, and NewsTarget. "We removed these Pages for spammy and abusive behavior, not the content they posted. They misled people about the popularity of their posts and relied on content farms in North Macedonia and the Philippines," said Facebook.    

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According to the social media platform, the actions were part of its routine enforcement against spam networks. Facebook's spam alarms were effectively tripped by the irregular behaviors of Natural News, after posting contents at an unusually high frequency in an attempt to avoid rate limits. 

After getting banned from Facebook in 2019, Natural News evaded Facebook's regulation by posting content on its branded disinformation groups called "GMO Dangers" and "Amazing Cures" which accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers. Facebook banned all users from posting links to Natural News and its sister websites across the social media platform on May 19, after discovering the foreign platform manipulation.  

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