The company, which made the announcement Thursday, has come under increasing pressure due to the barrage of anti-vaccine information found on Facebook and Instagram as cases of vaccine-preventable illnesses rise worldwide
Facebook is moving to stop the spread of anti-vaccine information on its social media sites by reducing the rankings of groups that spread misinformation, removing an option for advertisers to target people interested in “vaccine controversies” and rejecting ads that promote falsehoods about vaccines.
Many experts say social media sites are part of the problem, as they allow people to spread false information about vaccines to large audiences. Earlier this week, Ethan Lindenberger, an Ohio teenager who vaccinated himself despite his mother’s opposition, testified at a U.S. Senate hearing that his mother relied on social media sites, notably Facebook, as her source for anti-vaccine information.
“Social media, including Facebook, also helps to polarize the discourse. In many ways, social media platforms are polarization machines. The loud voices win,” he wrote. Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice-president of global policy management, wrote in a blog post Thursday that the company is “fully committed to the safety of our community and will continue to expand on this work.”
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