Facebook bans ‘disinformation’ about coronavirus vaccine

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Facebook announced this week that it will remove what it considers to be false coronavirus vaccine claims, including posts debunked by health experts chosen by Facebook.

NBC News reports that tech giant Facebook this week announced plans to remove bogus coronavirus vaccine claims that have been debunked by public health experts. In October, Google-owned YouTube made a similar pledge. The ruling expands Facebook’s current rules relating to lies and conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook says it removes any misinformation that poses a risk of “imminent” harm, and tags and reduces other misrepresentations that fall below this threshold. In a blog post, Facebook said the global policy change came in response to recent news that coronavirus vaccines would soon start rolling out around the world.

The blog post describes Facebook’s new rules for suppressing misinformation, stating:

For example, we will remove false claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips or anything else that is not on the official vaccine ingredient list. We will also remove the COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories that we now know to be false: as specific populations are used without their consent to test the vaccine for safety. We will not be able to start enforcing these policies overnight. As it is early and the facts about COVID-19 vaccines will continue to evolve, we will regularly update the claims that we are removing based on advice from public health authorities as they learn more.

Nonprofit group First Draft reported in November that 84% of interactions generated by conspiratorial vaccine-related content came from Facebook pages and the Facebook-owned Instagram photo-sharing platform. Facebook did not say when it would start enforcing its updated policy, but noted that it “could not start enforcing these policies overnight.”

Mark Zuckerberg has previously announced Facebook’s intention to partner with Joe Biden with his “COVID response”.