Facebook announced Monday that the company would take action against users and groups on Facebook and Instagram that spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine or vaccines in general.
“We will begin enforcing this policy immediately,” the company said on a blog post, “Groups, pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether.”
Facebook already has banned advertisements that spread misinformation about vaccines.
In December, the company announced that on the advice of its oversight board, posts that spread misinformation about COVID-19 would be labeled as inaccurate, with links to correct information.
The new policy was developed in consultation with the World Health Organization expanding a list of debunked claims to include those that COVID-19 was man-made in a lab; that vaccines are not effective, toxic, dangerous or cause autism; or that “it’s safer to get the disease than to get the vaccination.”
Anti-vaccine activists have used social media to undermine the public’s confidence in the vaccines, including anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr., whose January Facebook post, perpetuating the hoax that baseball legend Hank Aaron died of COVID-19 after being vaccinated, remains on the site, although it is tagged by reviewers.
The Fulton County, Ga., medical examiner refuted the rumors and said Aaron died of natural causes.
The false Internet rumors about Aaron’s death were the inspiration for some anti-vaccine protesters who attacked a mass vaccination site in Dodger Stadium last week, they told the Los Angeles Times.
But plenty of anti-vaccine groups have been active since before the pandemic. An October 2020 article in The Lancet showed that 31 million people followed anti-vaccine pages on Facebook in 2019, with the number of followers growing by more than 7 million in one year.
Waves of online disinformation about COVID-19 were traced to Russia and China last year.
A January study showed that anti-vaccine social media posts were correlated with an increased public resistance to vaccines for HPV, which researchers said could be relevant in how the public will accept COVID-19 vaccines.
Facebook said Monday the company would “continue to review content on our platforms, assess trends in language and engage with experts to provide additional policy guidance to keep people safe during this crisis.”
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“posts that spread misinformation about COVID-19 would be labeled as inaccurate, with links to correct information.”,,,,,where their missing links to the stolen election will never be revealed to show the missing links of the High tech industry’s collusion, and payback in protection from them getting stripped from the 230 protection act and their ability to make and chose Presidents, that has been stolen from THE PEOPLE. I hear their most visited links are to online copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Alinsky’s rules for Radicals, and Joseph Goebbels history and proper use of Censorship and Propaganda. These Companies are the ghost of Goebbels revisited, but now enlarged with the power of the Internet to invade every aspect of your privacy, your employment, your free press, with the pressure and threat of getting cancelled. Trust busting them should be America’s first priority, but will never happen under the corrupt Biden crime family. Biden is acting Like dictatorial Hitler in the latter days, with mind totally controlled and diminished by drugs, afraid of getting found out.
AND who gets to determine “False opinions”>> OH YEA, the commucrats of course.
Well of course they are! We can’t have uncontrolled discussions among the sheeple! They might say mean things! And of course, we know our Government is perfect so, what’s to discuss anyway? /s When is President Biden going to create the new Ministry of Public Truth?
Don’t you mean… the deep cesspool going to create the new Ministry of Public Truth.. you know we must “choose truth over facts”… then Biden will sign it before his nap. The only thing Biden’s capable of creating is a mess in his pants.
Didn’t you know, it was already created under obama.. THE LAME stream media!
These people remind me of hall monitors who believe they should be in command of what people say. Any word, any sentence, any look, anything is up for discussion, even to the point of ruining reputations causing irreputable harm to innocent people. I suppose if gives them a momentarily sense of superiority.
They want respect, but in the end they don’t get respect. You don’t get respect nor admiration or love from anyone when one does intentional harm to people by silencing them.
Respect is earned not commanded. This isn’t seventh grade, where everyone gets a trophy. They want respect but all they will get is hate, disdain and dishonor.
You vill say only vhat the party allows you to say. You vill think, only what the party allows you to think. You can do, only vhat the party allows you to do.. COMPLIANCE is mandatory. Beatings will continue till compliance is up. DA!
The communists at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the arbiters of what the “truth” is (mass censorship of Conservatives). Oh, how I love communism in this Country. We have the FBI and the Intelligence agencies spying on Trump supporters (we are all “white supremacists”), we have mass censorship from Big Tech and the Pravda communist news media. The politicians in Washington are complicit in this, as are the Democrat and the RINO Governors. The above mentioned politicians are all in bed with China, a brutal communist nation. Big Tech, including Microsoft is in bed with the communist Chinese. Need I say more, how our Country has been sold out?
And people wonder, why i’d be FIRMLY OK, with a massive asteroid flying in, and leaving Twitter/farcebook and the rest of these commucrat owned/ran businesses, HQ’s into a massive crater..
There has always been groups and individuals who have questioned the efficacy of vaccinations on various grounds from religious to medical interactions to downright fear, many with good reasons. Suddenly those voices are to be silenced because someone in the establishment wants them to go away rather than deal with them as a legitament concern. Neither the public nor science is served well with this closed mind attitude and alternative solutions are not explored. This is telling because these censors have in the passed disseminated the official misinformation about a great many things concerning COVID already!
More proof, they don’t WANT ANYONE to have any thoughts, in opposition, to what the party says you should think.
“The earth is flat. There will be no contrary opinion. Those stupid people who refuse to acknowledge the flat earth facts will be discredited, lose their employment, and will be investigated by the Commandant of the local concentration camp.”
I;m shocked they’re not calling for a spanish inquisition method to ‘root out conservatives’. Burn us at the stake, staple us to crucifixes.. etc
seig heil seig heil seig heil some body needs to hack these people and shut the bunch down!!!!
block them from america.
Does any intelligent person still use those communist platforms? I guess the next thing are magazines coming to our homes redacted. Sure it will be for our own good!
I wouldn’t be shocked to see them, go after magazines/newspapers next.. IN their attempt to silence ALL disscent.
So now these companies get to decide what we see, read or hear? And it’s always Russia and China doing the hacking. Just as Oceania, Eurasia, and East Asia were always at war with one another in Orwell’s novel 1984. George Orwell was more prophetic than he realized! These companies with their incestuous relationship with our tyrannical rulers must be broken up, and new companies which allow free speech must be supported!
I wish all social media would just “crackup” and leave.
If they can kick Conservatives off social media, why can’t we kick Blacks out of restaurants?
Whenever you are in doubt on any issue, check the Fake News and believe the exact opposite. The more Fake News spews hate on an opinion, be more assured that they are lying.
Thus, since they are outraged that anyone would question the effectiveness &/or safety of the covid shots, know that there are serious problems they don’t want you to know. Instead, search for “alternate medicine” that may work better but without the unknown side effects of the shots.
Cause political affiliation is NOT a ‘protected demographic’..
The liberal social media is trying to censor our freedom of speech if they don’t like what we say or think. We are entitled to our own opinion. Are they trying to act like socialist or communists? Shouldnt we be able to sue them? Or shouldn’t the govt. penalize them?
Next thing you know they will try to make it mandetory for all of us to have the shot. I won’t take it as it is no different than the flu shot which is only 10 to 35% effective. I never take a flu shot and I haven’t had the flu in 50 years. I use natural supplements & foods to keep up my immune system; apparently, as you can see, it works better than any shot. Why should I take one of their vaccines when it is noted that they kill over 150,000 people a year; and you want me to trust them? They give 10-20 vaccines to babies; more than any other country, yet we have a higher infant mortality rate than other industrial countries.
These people who are trying to control our lives need to wise up and don’t believe the fake news on TV, social media or from Big Pharma; which is all about the money. They need to do a little research before they speak; plus a little commonsense would help.
Unfortunately, cause of that Damnable 230 protection, NOTHING will ever happen to them….
LOL, which MDs on these platforms will decide what is “true” ? AntiSocial Media can shamelessly act as publishers now that they know nobody will challenge their status under Section 230.
New Leftist Motto: “Conformity is our strength.”