The anti-vaxxer movement is gaining momentum at an alarming pace. Facebook is doing its part to limit the reach of misinformation promoting the movement by reducing rankings of groups and Pages that share such misinformation.
By reducing their rank, such groups and pages don’t show up on the News Feed and Searches of other people. More than that, such groups and Pages will also be excluded in recommendations. As well as predictions as you type in the Search bar.
Beyond that, Facebook is also looking at rejecting ads that include anti-vaccine messages, as well as removing related targeting options. Ad accounts that continue to post such ads may also be disabled.
Organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will also be contributing to the fight against the anti-vaxxer” movement. Given how many verifiable hoaxes it has debunked, information provided by WHO will be crucial to Facebook in combating vaccine-related misinformation.
Of course, Facebook is not the first to be making a move against the anti-vaxxer movement. Plague Inc., the game that’s about pathogens and diseases, will also be adding anti-vaxxers as a possible scenario or buff for the game.
(Source: Facebook)
