The issues surrounding Facebook and blocking (or not) anti-vaxx content have gained yet another ingredients. The hashtag #vaccineskill was active on the social network and was noticed last week by CNN in the United States. Just a few hours after the American broadcaster alert the platform about the existence of the hashtag, the content was taken down.
Now, the anti-vaxx hashtag is hidden on Facebook, blocked with a message that says the social network is “keeping our community safe.” Interestingly, the same hashtag has been blocked on Instagram (which is owned by Facebook). two years ago and remains blocked to this day.
Despite this, already in 2019 it was observed how much it seemed to be a time It is a Herculean task for these social media platforms to curb the dissemination of anti-vaccine content. If at the time the practice of spreading misinformation of this nature was already quite harmful, in the current days of Covid-19, the situation is even more serious.
According to a Facebook spokesperson, the social network's process for determining whether a hashtag violates the platform's policies, among other factors, considers the percentage of content that the hashtag violates. "We began blocking the #vaccineskill hashtag on Instagram in 2019 because there was a substantial portion of content with the hashtag that violated “Our policies. At the time, the content on Facebook with the hashtag did not meet our threshold to block it,” the spokesperson said. “Now, the hashtag #vaccineskill on Facebook violates our policies against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines and we have blocked it from searches.”
Contradictions
Facebook has claimed to be working to combat vaccine misinformation on its social media. However, there are cases of contradiction that we can remember here. For example, in February, Facebook announced that it would include in the list of automatic ban fake news about vaccines. This week, a group of scientists from the social network revealed that the company refused funding at the beginning of the pandemic to develop a tool to measure vaccines. misinformation about Covid-19.
On Instagram's side, the social network announced in March that it would remove fake news about Covid-19 and the vaccine. It turns out that, in that same month, a survey was released indicating that the Instagram algorithm may be spreading harmful content, including anti-vaxx and QAnon.
The problems with social media and misinformation about the pandemic have reached the White House. Earlier this month, Joe Biden accused Facebook of be killing people for misinformation about Covid-19. However, a week later, the American president ended up going back in his statements, asking that social networks “not take it personally”, his statement, which is “more complicated than it seems”.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Engadget
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