Facebook bans posting against vaccines

Any content that discourages vaccinations will be blocked. The social network declares zero tolerance with no-vax campaigns

Health prevention hub on ùFacebook (Photo: Facebook) At the gates of the flu season and in the face of the second wave of coronavirus, Facebook has announced that it will ban posts that discourage the use of vaccines. The new measures will target the growing number of no-vax groups on the social network which, fueled by the skepticism surrounding Covid-19 vaccinations, continue to spread fake news.



"Our goal is to help vaccine safety and efficacy messages reach a broad group of people while banning misinformation ads that could harm public health efforts," explains Kang-Xing Jin. head of health, and Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook on the company's blog.

If an ad explicitly discourages someone from getting vaccinated, Facebook will block it. The yardstick used to recognize advertisements carrying vaccine hoaxes is based on data from leading global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to banning these types of ads, Facebook is committed to launching an information campaign on the flu vaccine while also collaborating with global health partners in campaigns to increase immunization rates.

“We are working with the Vaccine WHO safety network to train and support their network of vaccination partners to use Facebook to reach as many people as possible with public health messages ”, explains Facebook in the blogpost.

In the United States, Facebook will also launch a health prevention tool that will help and direct people to general information about the flu shot and how to get it, including the nearest place to get the vaccine. Facebook, as with many of its tools, will test the new information hub at home and then release it globally at a later date.