Facebook is Fighting All the Misinformation About Vaccines

Facebook is Fighting All the Misinformation About Vaccines

By reducing page rankings and the appearance of misinformation in searches, the social networking site is cracking down.

Measles is appearing again. It’s popping up in places it shouldn’t, as vaccines are readily available to stop its spread. Outbreaks are occurring around the world and Facebook is trying to stop it, at least in part.

The anti-vaccination movement has gained followers in recent times. Part of this is due to the ease with which so-called “warnings” against the use of vaccines can be spread on social media. The wrong message can spread like wildfire, and (uninformed) people believe them.

The result? This month Facebook has promised to take action.

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Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president for global policy management stated the network will reduce the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in news feeds and searches.

The site is also promising to remove the misleading content from search recommendations and predictions. It will also reject advertisements found to contain misinformation about vaccines, and disable accounts that continue to violate company policies on vaccine information, Bickert said, according to a post on Philstar.com.

The findings that connected vaccines with autism have been debunked, and new research is confirming this again. A study that followed 650,000 Danish children for over 10 years found that the vaccine used for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) did not increase rates of autism in those who got it.

To find out how you can stay up to date on your vaccines, click here.

 

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