[ad_1]
While a measles epidemic continues to spread in the state of Washington, Facebook "is exploring new measures" to tackle fake anti-vaccine content on the platform, Bloomberg reports.
The news comes after critics of Rep. Adam Schiff, who today sent Facebook Managing Director Mark Zuckerberg a letter regarding misinformation about vaccines on Facebook and Instagram. In the letter, first reported by BloombergSarah FrierSchiff fears that Facebook and Instagram are spreading deceptive and alarmist content about vaccines, which have been proven safe, effective and essential for public health. Schiff also sent a similar letter to Google's Sundar Pichai about the misinformation about vaccines on YouTube.
Schiff wrote in his letters that misinformation on these platforms could lead parents to ignore legitimate medical advice to vaccinate their children. "Repetition of information, even if it is false, can often be confused with accuracy," he wrote. He referred to Julia Carrie Wong's recent report The Guardian, who discovered that Facebook and YouTube are full of anti-vaccine and misleading propaganda. In addition, Wong found, YouTube's recommendation algorithm allowed people to discover these lies.
Schiff congratulated YouTube for its recent decision to limit video recommendations that "may misinform users in a harmful way," YouTube said The Guardian will include some anti-vaccine videos. (Google declined to comment on the recording for The edge.) In July, YouTube announced that it would also connect viewers to external information "along with videos on a small number of well-established historical and scientific topics that have often been misinformed." when they look for the MMR vaccine on the platform. Bloomberg stresses, however, that anti-vaccination videos still top YouTube's "vaccine" search results.
In response to a request for information regarding Schiff's letter, a spokesman for Facebook said The edge in an e-mail: "We remove content that violates our Community Standards, retrograde articles that may be misleading and post third-party audit articles to provide more context to people." the spokesperson said. We still have a long way to go and we will continue our efforts to provide educational information on topics as important as health. "
The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a follow-up question seeking clarification on the nature of these efforts. But a Facebook spokesman said Bloomberg that they could include "reducing or removing this type of content recommendations, including groups that you should join, and downgrading it into the search results, while ensuring that information of better quality and more reliable are available ".
In his letters, Schiff also asked Google and Facebook officials to tell them if they were accepting money for anti-vaccine ads. According to Daily Beast, Anti-vaccine ads on Facebook have targeted the demographic data "most likely to include mothers," including in the state of Washington, where a measles outbreak is underway. (Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the allegation.)
Wrong information about vaccines is not just about children whose parents leave them unvaccinated voluntarily. They are dangerous for the community as a whole because they can promote the spread of preventable and life-threatening diseases such as measles. While measles is known to cause rash and fever, the incredibly contagious virus can also cause pneumonia, brain damage and death. People who can not get the measles vaccine – including children under 12 months – rely on everyone other be vaccinated against the virus.
That's why measles outbreaks like those in Clark County, Washington, are so worrying, said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. The edge in January. "[Parents] live in fear of going out with their baby to Walmart or the public library. "
[ad_2]
Source link
