In a key step, Facebook has announced that it will remove misleading allegations and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines from Facebook and Instagram.
It is part of a broader move to combat false news about the pandemic. Since December, the platform has removed claims about the coronavirus unearthed by health experts.
But on Monday, the company expanded this policy and is now specifically targeting general anti-wax claims.
“Today, after consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims that we will remove to include additional depleted claims about the coronavirus and vaccines,” said Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity at Facebook, wrote in a blog update.
This includes claims such as:
- COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured
- Vaccinations are not effective in preventing the disease against which they are to be protected.
- It is safer to get the disease than to get the vaccine
- Vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism
Facebook will also remove fictitious allegations that the vaccine will alter or infertile people’s DNA, as well as false allegations about where the vaccines are made or their effectiveness.
But how do we know that SARS-CoV-2 was not made in a laboratory?
Researchers know that SARS-CoV-2 was not produced by the laboratory, because if it were, there would be evidence of manipulation in the genetic data.
Thousands of scientists around the world have sequenced the genome of the virus that causes COVID-19 and released their results, and there are no traces of the genome being altered by the tools we have at our disposal.
Are the vaccines safe?
Although the production of the vaccine was quickly detected, all the approved COVID-19 vaccines underwent the same rigorous clinical trials in the laboratory and also in humans as any other vaccine on the market.
There is an abundance of safety data available on the vaccines, and although there are rare people who are allergic to an ingredient in one of the vaccines – which is the case with any medication – the results show the vaccines approved for use are both safe for human consumption and effective.
But what about freedom of speech?
The technology giant says it has already removed more than 12 million pieces of content on Facebook and Instagram, which ‘contains incorrect information that could lead to imminent physical damage’.
And since April, the company has affixed warning labels to about 50 million pieces of content.
Facebook also announced Monday that it will give non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies and health ministries $ 120 million in advertising credits to distribute COVID-19 vaccine and preventative health information.
“In 2021, we are committed to supporting health leaders and officials in their work to vaccinate billions of people against COVID-19,” Kang-Xing Jin, head of health at Facebook, wrote in a statement.
Of course, Facebook was not always so vigilant against misinformation. Studies have shown that the social media enterprise was a means of spreading false news and inciting polarization.
But after the pandemic, and especially since the riots on January 6, the platform was more outspoken in its fight against misinformation.
Many people may view such movements as an attack on freedom of speech. But the reality is that much of what we see on social media is made up of fake accounts and bots, which are often created with the intent to spread distribution and spread misinformation.
In fact, a study led by Carnegie Mellon University in May last year found that between 45 and 60 percent of Twitter accounts sharing information about COVID-19 were likely to collide. Many of these spread rumors that the US should reopen in the early days of the pandemic lockdown.
To put this in perspective, during U.S. and foreign elections, political events, and natural disasters, clashes usually form about 10 to 20 percent of the discussion.
Social media researcher Jeanna Matthews of Clarkson University in New York last year discussed whether social media platforms like Facebook should take a more standpoint.
“Failure to act is often justified by concerns about freedom of speech,” she wrote for The Conversation.
“Does freedom of speech include the right to set up 100,000 false accounts with the express purpose of spreading lies, divisions and chaos?”
You can read the full list of COVID-19 claims that Facebook will no longer allow on the platform here (note: some people report that Facebook has not yet announced the new guidelines for this, so it may be a gradual process be).