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Pinterest Cracks Down on Anti-Vaxxers, Pressuring Facebook To Follow (cnbc.com)

Social network Pinterest has taken a big step to stop the spread of false content that is damaging people's health, which could put pressure on competitors to follow. From a report: Pinterest said Wednesday that it would no longer return any search results, including pins and boards, for terms related to vaccinations, whether in favor or against them. It took that step in late 2018 after noticing that the majority of shared images on Pinterest cautioned people against vaccinations, despite medical guidelines demonstrating that most vaccines are safe for most people. Pinterest told CNBC on Wednesday that it's been hard to remove this anti-vaccination content entirely, so it put the ban in place until it can figure out a more permanent strategy. It's working with health experts including doctors, as well as the social media analysis company called Storyful to come up with a better solution, the company said.

3 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Not about free speech by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is how society loses its freedom of speech.

    Oh bullshit. A private company squashing factually wrong information that results in people becoming sick and dying is hardly a slippery slope to the elimination of free speech. Anti-vaxxers are the slow equivalent of people shouting fire in a movie theater. They are causing needless panic and should be liable for the harm the lies they spread cause.

    Sure it's just pintrest and possibly facebook; but what if google decided to weigh in with their opinon on the matter?

    I hope they do. Anti-vaxxers are hurting people and it needs to stop as soon as possible.

    The slippery slope might be a fallacious argument, but it's not always wrong.

    It's definitely wrong in this case.

  2. Re:No, it needs to be SAFE to change their minds by GungaDan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Reason with them until they fall asleep, then vaccinate them.

    --
    Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
  3. Re:Will it help? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm done trying to keep people alive. There's about 8 billion humans now. That's plenty.

    You know why there are no 80+ year old anti-vaxers? Because they remember what an iron lung is. My grandma allegedly slapped a doctor because when I was born they stopped vaccinations for smallpox in our area and she was adamant that I HAVE TO get that vaccination. She lost a brother that way when she was a child.

    I guess people have to lose loved ones again to be reminded that there's a reason for this.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.