Twitter launches new search capabilities to end vaccine misinformation – TechCrunch

While measles outbreaks in the United States and other countries continue to worsen, Twitter introduces new research tools to help users find credible vaccine resources. This will also stop automatically suggesting search terms that would lead users to misinformation about vaccines.

In one blog article, Vice President of Trust and Security Twitter, Del Harvey wrote "on Twitter, we understand the importance of vaccines in disease prevention and recognize the role that Twitter plays in the dissemination of important public health information. We believe that it is important to help people find reliable information that improves their health and well-being. "

When users search for vaccine-related keywords, they see a prompt for them pointing to the resources of Twitter's news partners. In the United States, it is Vaccines.gov, a website of the Department of Health and Social Services. A tweet pinned to one of Twitter's partners will also appear.

In addition to the United States, vaccine information tools will also be featured on Twitter's iOS and Android apps and on its mobile site in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.

Harvey wrote that Twitter's vaccine information tools are similar to those launched for the prevention of suicide and self-harm last year. The company plans to launch similar features for other public health issues in the coming months, she added.

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of measles cases in the United States had risen to 839. Cases have been reported in 23 states this year, the majority – or nearly 700 – in New York. .

Social networks have been criticized for not doing more to prevent the spread of misinformation about vaccines and, as the number of measles cases has increased, has begun. to take action. For example, YouTube announced earlier this year that it was demonetizing all anti-vaccine videos, while Facebook was starting to downgrade anti-vaccine content on its news feed and hide it on Instagram.