San Francisco: With vaccines against Covid-19 on the verge of being rolled out around the world, Facebook Inc. said it will start removing false claims about the immunizations that have been debunked by public health experts.
The move announced Thursday adds to Facebook’s policy of taking down misinformation about the deadly virus that could lead to imminent physical harm.
The type of posts that could be removed on Facebook or Instagram include false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccine, Facebook said. These could include claims that the vaccines contain microchips or anything else not on the official ingredient list.
In October, Facebook said it would ban ads that discourage people from getting vaccines in general, not just for Covid.
Facebook said it will continue to point people to authoritative information from public health institutions such as the World Health Organization and the U.K. National Health Service.-Bloomberg
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While Facebook’s move is good-intentioned, it is the wrong action. This is no different than the middle-ages where censorship was rampant. Anyone going against the popular beliefs (eg: the earth is the center of the universe) or against the official viewpoint would not be entertained.
Humanity gradually learnt over the years that allowing non-government sources to spread information was the best way to prevent only one viewpoint, whether true or false, from dominating. Humanity owes a lot of its modern day success to this value, popularly called ‘Freedom of expression’. Facebook, or any other platform, cannot claim a holier than thou attitude and determine what is right information and what is wrong.
This is a very retrograde step.