Facebook Begins Hiding Anti-Vaccine Misinformation (usatoday.com)

America now has 206 confirmed cases of measles, its highest year-to-date number in over 25 years . Now USA Today reports on how Facebook is responding: In mid-February, Facebook told USA TODAY it had "taken steps" to reduce fake health news and anti-vaxx posts and said it was considering making anti-vaccination content on its site less visible amid a measles outbreak that has reignited a conversation about preventative shots. At the time, Facebook said, "we know we have more to do...." Revealed Thursday: The social network says it will reduce distribution and provide users with "authoritative information" on the topic.

Facebook is following the lead of Pinterest, which has blocked all searches using terms related to vaccines or vaccinations as part of a plan to stop the spread of misinformation related to anti-vaxx posts.... It will reduce the ranking of Facebook groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search. "These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search," Facebook said. When it discovers ads with misinformation about vaccinations, "we will reject them." Facebook said it has removed related targeting options, like "vaccine controversies," in ads.... Additionally, Facebook said it wouldn't show or recommend content that contains misinformation about vaccinations on the Explore section of Facebook-owned Instagram or on its hashtag pages.

Comments

This is the wrong approach

[gweihir]

The problem is that it makes it very easy to hide correct information as well, if the "authorities" do not like it. The right approach would be better education. But that is also something the "authorities" do not like, as better educated citizen may just spot all their various screw-ups, extreme waste and outright evil machinations.

Re: This is the wrong approach

[SirAstral]

"There is no information that would support not getting vaccinated against the measles."

A statement of pure ignorance. Here even the CDC would like to call you out on that.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/v...

Thankfully the side effects are rare in most cases, and the risks of not getting vaccinated are higher than getting vaccinated.

If vaccines were totally safe they would be sold over the counter available for anyone to pick up instead of keeping them locked behind doctors and regulations. Your should have just stopped at your first post, you were doing good until now.

Re:This is the wrong approach

[terrycarlino]

The problem with this is that true information which questions the safety of a particular vaccine or vaccine from a particular vendor will be hidden along with the lies.

The answer to misinformation is always to refute it, not to hide it. When you drive speech underground it always flourishes, and now there is no one to refute the lies.

Re:This is the wrong approach

[MightyMartian]

Nothing is stopping you from creating your own antivaxx network. Go to it. Facebook is not obliged to host such content, or at the very least to make it easy to find. Censorship, as a dire tool of tyranny is only used in the context of the State, and so far as I'm aware, no one is proposing the US or other national governments make spreading antivaxx garbage unlawful.

Re:This is the wrong approach

[MightyMartian]

Before wide use of the Internet, White Supremacists were a fringe group who basically communicated with each other via xeroxed periodicals delivered in brown paper wrapping. Yes, the White Supremacists were there, and yes, the general social censure gave them some sort of a bizarre mystique, but they were basically dying out. Along comes the Internet, and suddenly you have a racist goon driving a car into a crowd, and a pack of Neo-nazis chanting Antisemitic slogans on TV.

I'm sorry, but the fact is that if you make information harder to obtain, it does tend to cause the groups trying to disseminate it a great deal of trouble.

And heck, this is just making it a bit harder for Antivaxxers to spread their nonsense. I couldn't believe on a simple search onf Facebook for the word "vaccine", just how high up the antivaxxer garbage was in the search results.

Re:This is the wrong approach

[gweihir]

Well, that makes you even more dangerous that the anti-vaxxers: You appear to be rational, but are not.

Re: This is the wrong approach

[Antique Geekmeister]

In general, the CDC article is strongly supportive of vaccination, and lays out sound medical reasons to get the vaccine. But it's important to read the entire article, which also says:

> Anyone who has ever had a life-threatening allergic reaction to the antibiotic neomycin, or any other component of MMR vaccine, should not get the vaccine.

Acknowledging the dangerous cases or the exceptions is one of the most reliable signs of good science.

Re:This is the wrong approach

[drinkypoo]

I have no desire to educated the stupid. I just wish I was not on the same planet with them.

You can stow away on Musk's rocket to Mars, you can kill yourself, or you can educate the stupid. Any other result is going to leave you sharing the same ball of mud with dumbasses.

Re: This is the wrong approach

[markass530]

No The CDC website does not have any information that would support not getting vaccinated., maybe go finish middle school and try reading it slower, maybe get the adult in charge of you to help

Re:This is the wrong approach

[gweihir]

No, I just don't lie to people like you and tell them, this is all perfectly safe and this will not hurt a bit.

And that I did do exactly where? Oh, right, I did not. What I said is that for the discussion at hand (Measles) vaccinations are _necessary_ and that not having them (unless there is a sound medical reason) is dangerous and harmful to others. That is a bit different from what you claim I have said.

Up next: Conservative opinions

[scsirob]

.. and then anything not in line with SJW / PC guidelines, anything 'micro agression', anything incompatible with intersectional thinking, LGBTQIWTF+/- and so on. Do I hear an ultra-left echo chamber there?
So glad I cut the FB madness several years ago. I'd like to form my own opinion, thank you.

Re:Up next: Conservative opinions

[AmiMoJo]

Seems like if they were going after conservatives they would start with the Nazis on Facebook. Even less controversial than vaccination.

Re:Up next: Conservative opinions

[blindseer]

Maybe I've been living under a rock for the last 90 years so...

What does Nazism have to do with conservatism?

Yes, it would be less controversial to filter out Nazism. What that does though is remove the premise that Facebook is merely a communications conduit. As soon as they start filtering out information that they do not agree with then they should lose any protections similar to those granted to phone companies. A phone company cannot be held liable for communications they transmit because the phone companies aren't trying to correct misinformation translated down their wires. If they did then they could be held liable for the misinformation that got through.

If FaceBook wants to be a conduit for information then they need to stay out of the editorializing on what is said. If they do want to get in that game then they need to publish clear rules on what is acceptable and what is not.

Re:Up next: Conservative opinions

[Rockoon]

AmiMoJo is still repeating the lie that Nazi's were conservatives, a whole fucking decade after everyone but those in tiny bubbles gave up trying to sell it.

This is the information age. Hitlers campaign speeches are seconds away. Everyone is seconds away from seeing that Hitler said the same shit the american left now says: The rich are evil, we are here for the working class, the state should provide healthcare, fuck the russians, gotta get rid of guns, etc, etc, etc... the list isnt endless but it goes on and on ...

And now we see the american left here, defending a corporation for censorship.

The left isnt liberal. We became liberal long ago. It is conservative to want to maintain our liberalism. It is leftist to want to destroy it.

I disagree

[rsilvergun]

Facebook is an advertising platform. Left alone they will effectively advertise anti-vaxxer nonsense to the detriment of kids like this.

The trouble with a purely algorithmic news source is that it's going to serve you up more and more of whatever it is you're clicking on. That's because the algorithms aren't really that complex. There's no magic, it's just "People who clicked this video also clicked this video". Without someone stepping in it becomes an endless echo chamber. One that also tends to push the worst ideas up to the surface because extreme, visceral ideas get the most reactions and most clicks.

The problem is that the current ad supported Internet exists to increase engagement. They want to keep you on the page longer, clicking more and seeing more ads. This is a hyperactive version of what happened in the 80s when News shows figured out that fear sells and they all started running terrifying news stories about pedophiles and gang bangers.

My mom saw those and locked me up in my room, never mind that most pedophiles are family members or authority figures like priests and the gang bangers stayed in their own little neck of the wood because if they didn't the cops came round and busted heads. It was all lies, but it had a huge impact on my life when I spent the better half of my teenage years in constant conflict because I wasn't allowed to go anywhere or do anything. It sucked.

And yeah, she was an anti-vaxxer too. Give people like that something to be afraid of and they will. Instead, cut it the fuck out and replace it with reality.

Legitimizes FB as a "source of good information"

[WoodstockJeff]

Whenever people cheer that FB is blocking "bad things", that makes it more tempting to thing, "If it is allowed on FB, it must be good!"

If people cultivate the idea that FB is a source of "information" that may or may not be correct, they'll be a bit less likely to fall for the next "As Seen On FB" craze, be it medical, political, or religious.

Re:Vaccination = Homeopathy

[MightyMartian]

The most successful series of public health initiatives since soap and in-door plumbing is a "real health scare". You should be lucky. I had a teacher in school who had polio as a child, and carried the scars the rest of his life. There are enough pictures of kids in iron lungs, kids damaged by measles outbreaks, and the like, to demonstrate that vaccines really are among the most successful medical interventions every created. There are millions of people whose lives have been saved outright, or have never had to suffer the long-term, often permanent ravages, of these diseases, and it's because of that that idiots like yourself seem so willing to be cavalier with both the truth and the health of millions of people.

Grow up. You do not possess some secret knowledge. You're just an ignorant fool.