Facebook to Remove False Info on Covid-19 Vaccines

Facebook announced on Friday it will remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines, as countries around the world prepare to start rolling them out. Meanwhile, the firm’s policy is removing false claims such as posts promoting false cures or bogus conspiracy theories linking the virus to 5G. The company removed 12 million posts as a result of this policy between March and October.

Also, the company has only removed posts containing misinformation about vaccines in Pakistan and Samoa in the past, and those examples weren’t related to Covid. Moreover, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained that the company would show its users “authoritative information about the vaccines,” without elaborating on how it planned to distribute this information, according to CNBC.

On ther hand, the pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca reported that they’ve developed effective Covid vaccines and after the U.K. became the first country to approve one of the frontrunners, Facebook has outlined a stance to delete false claims about them.

In contrast, in 2018 the firm allowed anti-vaccination content to spread unchecked on its platform. In July of that year, the company first introduced its policy of deleting misinformation that could lead to physical harm, and has applied it sparingly to content about vaccinations in the years since focusing primarily on the most clearly false claims about specific vaccines and vaccination programes.

Noteworthy, Facebook revealed its plans to launch news tab in UK by 2021 worth £5bn, the firm will pay publishers millions of dollars to feature their content. The publishers including The Economist, The Mirror, The Guardian, Vogue, GQ and Harpers have signed a deal with Facebook for their content to feature in the tab.

Facebook News is a tab within the platform that showcases licensed content, will roll out in January next year in the UK. Facebook curates and personalises stories in Facebook News for users, selecting original and authoritative reporting, according to the firm report.