Facebook is moving to halt the spread of misinformation in the form of vaccine hoaxes.
Monika Bickert, vice-president: global policy management, says the company is working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.
Facebook will reduce the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search; and they will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when users type into Search.
The the organisation finds ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, they will be rejected, along with related targeting options, like “vaccine controversies”. When ad accounts continue to violate policies, Facebook could take further action such as disabling the ad account.
Bickert says the site also won’t show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages.
“We are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic,” she adds.
Global health organisations, such as the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes, she says. “If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them.
“For example, if a group or Page admin posts this vaccine misinformation, we will exclude the entire group or Page from recommendations, reduce these groups and Pages’ distribution in News Feed and Search, and reject ads with this misinformation.”
Bickert says Facebook believes in providing people with additional context so they can decide whether to read, share, or engage in conversations about information they see on the site. “We are exploring ways to give people more accurate information from expert organisations about vaccines at the top of results for related searches, on Pages discussing the topic, and on invitations to join groups about the topic.”