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 The world's biggest social network said in a blog post that it would
remove content about the virus "with false claims or conspiracy
theories that have been flagged by leading global health
organizations and local health authorities," saying such content
would violate its ban on misinformation leading to "physical harm."
The move is unusually aggressive for Facebook, which generally
limits the distribution of content containing health misinformation
through restrictions on search results and advertising, but allows
the original posts to stay up.
That approach has angered critics who say the company has failed to
curb the spread of inaccuracies that pose major global health
threats.
In particular, misinformation about vaccination has spread far on
social media in many countries in recent years, including during
major vaccination campaigns to prevent polio in Pakistan and to
immunize against yellow fever in South America.
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Facebook, under fierce scrutiny worldwide in recent years over its
privacy practices, has previously removed vaccine misinformation in
Samoa, where a measles outbreak killed dozens late last year, after
determining the situation was so severe that the inaccuracies were
risks to physical harm, a spokeswoman told Reuters, calling the move
an "extreme action."
It also removed misinformation about polio vaccines in Pakistan,
although the imminent harm in that case involved risks of violence
against the health workers carrying out the immunization campaigns,
she said.
(Reporting by Katie Paul; editing by Nick Macfie)
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