The
move expands Facebook's current rules against falsehoods and
conspiracy theories about the pandemic. The social media company
says it takes down coronavirus misinformation that poses a risk
of "imminent" harm, while labeling and reducing distribution of
other false claims that fail to reach that threshold.
Facebook said in a blog post that the global policy change came
in response to news that COVID-19 vaccines will soon be rolling
out around the world.
Two drug companies, Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc, have asked U.S.
authorities for emergency use authorization of their vaccine
candidates. Britain approved the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday,
jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin the
most crucial mass inoculation program in history.
Misinformation about the new coronavirus vaccines has
proliferated on social media during the pandemic, including
through viral anti-vaccine posts shared across multiple
platforms and by different ideological groups, according to
researchers.
A November report https://firstdraftnews.org/long-form-article/under-the-surface-covid-19-vaccine-narratives-misinformation-and-data-deficits-on-social-media
by the nonprofit First Draft found that 84 percent of
interactions generated by vaccine-related conspiracy content it
studied came from Facebook pages and Facebook-owned Instagram.
Facebook said it would remove debunked COVID-19 vaccine
conspiracies, such as that the vaccines' safety is being tested
on specific populations without their consent, and
misinformation about the vaccines.
"This could include false claims about the safety, efficacy,
ingredients or side effects of the vaccines. For example, we
will remove false claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain
microchips," the company said in a blog post. It said it would
update the claims it removes based on evolving guidance from
public health authorities.
Facebook did not specify when it would begin enforcing the
updated policy, but acknowledged it would "not be able to start
enforcing these policies overnight."
The social media company has rarely removed misinformation about
other vaccines under its policy of deleting content that risks
imminent harm. It previously removed vaccine misinformation in
Samoa where a measles outbreak killed dozens late last year, and
it removed false claims about a polio vaccine drive in Pakistan
that were leading to violence against health workers.
Facebook, which has taken steps to surface authoritative
information about vaccines, said in October that it would also
ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccines. In recent
weeks, Facebook removed a prominent anti-vaccine page and a
large private group - one for repeatedly breaking COVID
misinformation rules and the other for promoting the QAnon
conspiracy theory.
(Reporting by Katie Paul and Elizabeth Culliford, Editing by
Nick Zieminski)
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