Facebook will now remove fake posts about COVID-19 vaccines

• In a bid to curb misinformation related to COVID-19, Facebook has said that it will fake news about covid vaccines from its platform. Although Facebook had started removing fake posts, the social media site has now expanded the list of potential claims that will be removed from Facebook.

• The social media site has been used to spread a lot of fake information even when COVID was first discovered. However, Facebook had managed to minimize the spread by deploying various teams to monitor posts on the platform.

• Facebook has said that It will remove posts claiming that COVID-19 is a man-made disease, posts stating that Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against.

• Some posts that have claimed that It is safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine will also be removed. Another claim that has been commonly found is that vaccines can cause autism. So any such claims will be removed from Facebook to stop the misinformation from reaching a large number of people.

“We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups, and accounts that violate these rules, and we’ll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks. Groups, Pages, and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether.

• We are also requiring some admins for groups with admins or members who have violated our COVID-19 policies to temporarily approve all posts within their group.

• Claims about COVID-19 or vaccines that do not violate these policies will still be eligible for review by our third-party fact-checkers, and if they are rated false, they will be labeled and demoted,” Facebook said in a blogpost.

CONCLUSION

• Apart from removing fake information, Facebook has said that it will improve its search results.

• For instance, when people search for vaccine or COVID-19 related content on Facebook, the social media site will try to up relevant, authoritative results and provide third-party resources to connect people to expert information about vaccines. Facebook will also limit the reach of Instagram accounts that are trying to spread Fake news about COVID.

• “On Instagram, in addition to surfacing authoritative results in Search, in the coming weeks we’re making it harder to find accounts in search that discourage people from getting vaccinated,” Facebook said.