Facebook is increasing its efforts to take down false allegations that are being circulated on the social networking site linked to Covid-19. The extended list of false statements also includes vaccinations and vaccines for Covid-19 during the pandemic in general. Facebook will also take down those false claims from Instagram.
“Covid-19 is man-made or manufactured,” vaccines are not effective in preventing the disease from which they are supposed to protect,” and “it is safer to get the disease than to get the disease,” are some of the false claims that it will eliminate.”
It is worth noting that such claims as ads are already barred by Facebook.
Facebook said that the implementation of the updated policy would begin with immediate effect. Pages, groups, and accounts that breach the new rules will be the focus of the social networking company. The company warned that groups, pages, and accounts that are regular perpetrators of spreading such false claims would be taken down.
If they think their claims about Covid-19 or vaccines have not breached the policies, users will have the option to ask for a review. If third-party fact-checkers on Facebook rate them as false, the posts will be labelled and demoted.
In addition to expanding the list, Facebook said it has also enhanced the Covid-19 search results.
When people search on Facebook for vaccine or COVID-19 related material, we encourage important, credible results and provide third-party tools to link individuals to vaccine expert information. In addition to surfacing authoritative results in Search, we’re making it harder on Instagram in the coming weeks to find search accounts that deter individuals from getting vaccinated, the company said in an article.