Facebook To Censor Anti-Vaxers

Facebook will soon take aim against anti-vaxers. If verified vaccine hoaxes — identified by World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — appear on Facebook, the company will start by lowering the ranking of groups and pages that spread the misinformation in its News Feed and Search options.

Facebook’s vice president of global policy management Monika Bickert says “These Groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search.” She added that when ads that include misinformation about vaccinations are found they’ll reject them. Ad accounts that continue to violate company policies may even be disabled.

Facebook will not be suspending personal accounts that post misinformation about vaccines since general misinformation doesn’t violate the company’s community standards.

Bickert said the company is also “exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines,” possibly by adding educational information to inaccurate posts.

The effort is company-wide and will be unrolled in the next few weeks.