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More than 30,000 Australians call for the removal of Facebook anti-vaccination groups in the crackdown on social media
- Australians call on Facebook to ban anti-vaccination groups on platform
- David Brand, based in Brisbane, said he wanted to fight against "anti-vaxx propaganda"
- He said that the rise of the social media giant fueled the rise of a controversial movement
- Pinterest and Youtube have already repressed rhetoric
Charlie Coë for Daily Mail Australia
More than 30,000 Australians have asked Facebook to follow the example of other social media platforms and ban anti-vaccination groups.
Pinterest's photo sharing provider blocked all vaccine-related searches last month, and YouTube also removed ads promoting anti-vaccine rhetoric.
Brisbane software developer David Brand has launched a petition calling on Facebook to get rid of groups acting "like a vaccine-reinforcing myth".
More than 30,000 Australians have asked Facebook to follow the example of other social media platforms and ban anti-vaccination groups
Mr. Brand stated that he wanted to attack the "anti-vax propaganda".
"The most important mechanism for propaganda to spread is Facebook," the 31-year-old journalist told News Corp.
He added that the anti-vaccine movement had developed in parallel with the growing popularity of the social media platform since 2008.
"If Facebook deleted these pages or repressed them, it would make a huge difference," he said.
He added that his petition, which already has more than 33,000 signatures, has been particularly successful in recent months as a result of a series of measles epidemics in Australia.
Republican MP Adam Schiff sent a letter to Facebook last month in the United States asking him to reveal the measures taken to provide medically accurate information.
One of the largest anti-vaccination groups in Australia, Anti-Vaccination Australia, has more than 17,000 members and Mr. Brand said he wanted to attack "propaganda". anti-vax "(picture in stock).
A Facebook spokesman said the company had already worked to reduce health-related disinformation, but was considering making other changes.
The spokesman, however, did not comment on the Australian voices that had requested a change.
Over the past two weeks, bodies have been placed on the alert in New South Wales, Queensland, after people became infected with the potentially fatal disease.
Other measles cases in Victoria, South Australia and ACT have also been identified.
The Anti-Vaccination Australia, one of the largest anti-vaccination groups in Australia, has more than 17,000 members.
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