Facebook has yet to take significant steps in addressing the spread of vaccine misinformation online, despite making a pledge to do so in March, reports The Wall Street Journal.
WSJ noted antivaccine content is still widely available on the social media giant’s platforms. As of this week, the company was also still running paid ads from a prominent antivaccination group on its website.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, told WSJ. “And we know that.”
To avoid accusations of overstepping its bounds, Facebook’s main focus is to prevent the spread of false information, not to silence antivaccine advocates, according to Ms. Bickert.
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Facebook is developing automated tools to detect banned antivaccine content and working with public health groups to create informational materials that will pop up for users searching for vaccine-related content. Ms. Bickert said these changes may take some time to implement, as the company intends to test the features before launching them.
Date: June 11, 2019
