Pinterest to lead vaccine searches to health sites

Pinterest users looking for information on vaccines will be directed to the results of "public health organizations".

Last year, the social platform stopped showing results in vaccine research to combat the spread of misinformation.

Social media companies are becoming more and more controlled about how they moderate the content of their sites.

In recent months, other companies, including Facebook, have taken steps to combat misinformation about vaccines.

According to the new policy, Pinterest said that research on "measles," "vaccine safety" and other health-related terms would return results obtained from public health agencies, including the World Health Organization. Health (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and vaccine safety established by WHO. Net.

"We adopt this approach because we believe that misinformation about the vaccine as well as resources from public health experts is not responsible," the firm said in a statement.

"As we continue to fight health misinformation, we are removing it, as well as the accounts that have been broadcasting it since our service," Pinterest said.

The company also indicated that it would not broadcast any announcements, comments or recommendations on the results pages of the vaccine research.

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Repression of content

The WHO said anti-vaccine opinions were one of the "top ten threats to global health" in 2019.

The volume of anti-vaccine sentiments on social media has increased in recent years, raising fears that this will have a negative impact on immunization rates in some countries.

In recent months, some platforms have taken steps to combat false information about vaccines.

YouTube has stopped running ads on several popular channels touting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

The decision in February followed demonstrations by companies who discovered that their ads ran alongside controversial videos.

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In a statement released in March, Facebook said it was working to "fight misinformation about vaccines … by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the subject."

The company said the measures to be taken included the rejection of ads containing misinformation about vaccines and the non-submission of misleading content on hashtag pages.

Instagram – which belongs to Facebook – said in May that it would prevent hashtags from being used to disseminate "truthfully false" information about vaccinations.