(CMR) As part of its policy on Covid-19-related misinformation, Facebook will now remove posts with false claims about all vaccines.
Posts with claims that have been debunked will be removed from both Facebook and Instagram.
The company said it has been removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that public health experts have debunked since December.
However, following consultation with the World Health Organization, it expanded the list of debunked claims that will be removed from social media platforms on Monday.
“These new policies will help us continue to take aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
The policy which came into effect on Monday will focus on Pages, groups, and accounts that violate these rules.
“Groups, Pages, and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether. We are also requiring some admins for groups with admins or members who have violated our COVID-19 policies to temporarily approve all posts within their group,” Facebook said.
Facebook has faced criticism in recent months for its handling of Covid-19 misinformation as several conspiracy theorists have used the platform to get their messages out.
The claims to be removed include:
- COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured
- Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against
- It’s safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine.
- Vaccines are toxic, dangerous, or cause autism.
These are also prohibited in advertisements on the platforms.
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