Covid-19: Facebook to remove false claims about Covid vaccines

Social media giant Facebook says it will start removing all false claims about Covid-19 and its vaccine in all of its platforms following the announcement of the first vaccine being approved for use and distribution around the world by early 2021. The policy change expands Facebook’s current rules against falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

Facebook said it is applying a policy to remove coronavirus misinformation that poses a risk of “imminent physical harm.” In a blog post, Facebook said “we will remove false claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips to control or monitor patients or anything else that isn’t on the official vaccine ingredient list.”

Facebook has come under fire for what has been seen as a sketchy approach to handling fake news and false claims, and misleading content about the pandemic that is still widely available on its platforms.

Facebook says that since January it has been removing content about the pandemic, such as false cures and treatments or claims that the disease doesn’t exist at all.

From March to October, it has removed 12 million posts with coronavirus-related misinformation. In October, it banned advertisements that discouraged people from taking vaccines, though it made an exception for advocacy ads about government vaccine policies. The company has also promoted articles debunking Covid-19 misinformation on an information center.

Meanwhile, other social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok stated that they will also remove false claims about Covid-19 vaccines. Twitter also stated that it is working on tagging false claims on the site before the vaccine is distributed.