Facebook to Immediately Take Down Posts Claiming Vaccines Can Cause Autism as COVID-19 Vaccines Roll Out

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 09 February 2021, 11:02 am

CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Data — (Photo : Pexels/Gustavo Fring)

Facebook is becoming more strict with what people can post on its platform, especially when it comes to health and safety.

The social media giant will now automatically remove any false claims about COVID-19, the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general starting February 9, 2021.

Facebook to remove false COVID-19 vaccine claims

Facebook began removing false COVID-19 claims in December 2020 and the platform notified users when they had interacted with a harmful post that has misleading and false information about the virus and the vaccine. Now, the list of potential claims that could get a post removed on Facebook has expanded.

The new expanded list of false COVID-19 and vaccine-related claimed that will be removed now includes: vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease, vaccines are not effective in fighting the disease that they were created to protect people against, COVID-19 is a hoax and is laboratory-made, getting the disease and healing naturally is safer than getting vaccinated and that vaccines are toxic, dangerous and cause autism.

Also Read: Facebook Removes the Like Button on New Page Design: Here's What You Can See Instead

According to Facebook, it will start enforcing its new policy immediately, focusing on pages, groups and accounts that posts and share content from the list of its false claims. Facebook also stated that it would consider removing the primary sources of the posts if they will continue with the behavior.

Facebook added that it will only be enforcing this change during the COVID-19 health emergency, so even though this new rule may help minimize the spread of misinformation posted by anti-vaxxers on the platform, it might come back in the future.

Although this change may be short-lived, it is still very important as the platform is a major source of vaccine misinformation even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing the issue directly could have a great impact on those who might have become anti-vaxxers due to false claims.

Facebook's stance

The company expanding what qualifies as a misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine earned praise from the public and medical experts. However, some people worry that some posts might be tagged as inappropriate even though it isn't.

Studies into the effectiveness of vaccines, certain masks and tests are all still ongoing. Facebook's new guidelines might prevent conversations around the new research results, according to what UNC Professor Zeynep Tufekci posted on his Twitter account.

Tufekci stated that recommendations from public health agencies have changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may mean that older posts from health organizations like World Health Organization may also be removed.

According to the report by The Verge, Facebook is now making adjustments outside of the policy changes they imposed, especially when it comes to how factual COVID-19 information gets delivered on Instagram and Facebook.

The company will now feature links to vaccine information and for signing up to get a vaccination in its very own COVID-19 Information Center. The company also plans to add this feature to another social media platform that it owns, which is Instagram.

Facebook guaranteed that it is improving search on both Facebook and Instagram to feature more relevant and authoritative results when a user searches something that is related to COVID-19.

The company is also extending $120 million in ad credits for NGOs, UN agencies and health ministries to spread the correct information about COVID-19 vaccine on Facebook.