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Public health experts have blamed social media platforms, saying false claims that vaccines are the cause of autism and other diseases have scared parents to refuse to be vaccinated which resulted in the measles outbreak that began in the state of Washington.
The Facebook representative, who asked not to be named, said the social media giant was working with health experts to decide what changes needed to be made and was considering a combination of approaches to deal with misinformation about vaccines. These approaches do not eliminate Facebook's misinformation but make it less visible.
For example, groups promoting disinformation on vaccines would not be included in the list of groups Facebook recommends users to join. In addition, Facebook would ensure that publications containing incorrect information about the vaccine appear further down in a user's news feed.
Public health and technology experts welcomed the planned changes. "This is good news," said Art Caplan, head of the medical ethics division of the faculty of medicine at New York University. "These are steps forward, but they are going in the right direction."
Darrell West, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute for Nonprofit, agreed. "Facebook is on the side of science," he said. "They act in accordance with the scientific consensus."
Facebook is also considering making changes to its advertising policy, according to the representative. CNN research on Facebook's archived advertising website revealed that several groups promoting false vaccine information are advertising on the site.
Another change would be to place the results with lower vaccine misinformation when people search for certain terms. This could lead to major changes. According to recent CNN research on Facebook, anti-vaccine groups are now at the top of the list of results when the word "vaccine" is sought.
Facebook has been under considerable pressure to do something about anti-vaccine information on its site; other social media platforms have been hard on this content years ago. For example, YouTube does not allow the broadcast of ads on videos promoting anti-vaccine content, which means that these groups can not make money with the publicity.
Pinterest enforces the most restrictive rules on vaccine information; users can not access certain sites containing incorrect information, among other restrictions.
"We are a place of inspiration, and harmful content is nothing inspiring," said Ifeoma Ozoma, policy and social impact manager for Pinterest.
Caplan said that while welcoming the changes made by Facebook, he wanted the platform not stop there. "It may be necessary to go even further with regard to the complete slaughter of erroneous and erroneous sites," he said.
A First Amendment rights advocate, however, said that she thought Facebook had found the right balance. "They avoid censorship, but do not necessarily recommend it to their readers, and that is probably the best way to go. about it, "said Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center at the non-partisan Institute of Freedom Forum.
Aaron Kessler from CNN contributed to this report.
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