Facebook issues update on COVID-19 misinformation
Wednesday, 10 February, 2021
Facebook has announced important to its misinformation policy in relation to COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic.
The social media giant will expand its efforts to remove false claims from Facebook and Instagram, following consultations with leading health organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO).
鈥淲e are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines,鈥 Facebook VP Integrity Guy Rosen posted in an update. 鈥淭his includes claims such as:
- COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured.
- Vaccines are not effective at preventing the disease they are meant to protect against.
- It鈥檚 safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine.
- Vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism.鈥
听
The full list of claims is available .
鈥淭hese new policies will help us continue to take aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines,鈥 Rosen added.
Facebook Groups, Facebook Pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share debunked claims may be removed altogether. Facebook also announced that it will continue to work with health partners to help people access accurate information and increase general public confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine.
Facebook Head of Health Kang-Xing Jin said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e working with health organisations and community leaders to run campaigns on our platform promoting accurate information about COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to get vaccinated. We鈥檙e giving $120 million in ad credits to help health ministries, NGOs and UN agencies reach billions of people around the world with COVID-19 vaccine and preventive health information. And we鈥檙e providing training and marketing support to help governments and health organisations move quickly and reach the right people with the latest vaccine information.鈥
To assist researchers and public health officials, the social media platform has provided publicly available real-time data and tools to help inform disease forecasting and understand the effectiveness of prevention measures. The program involves collaboration with more than 450 organisations across the world.
Global survey data from Facebook and the University of Maryland on includes data for Australia. The Data for Good tool estimates the percentage of people willing to be vaccinated. According to the tool, 77.4% of Australians would choose to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Artificial touch boosted by brain-controlled bionic hand
New research suggests that a complex sense of touch for people with spinal cord injuries is now a...
Patient-specific 3D models to assist in surgery
UNSW engineers have their sights on developing anatomically accurate 3D printed models which...
Alfred Health deploys GE system to optimise operations
The system is designed to enhance situational awareness, communication, and overall operational...