Facebook pledges clampdown on anti-vaccination fake news pages

Facebook is to clamp down on anti-vaccination groups on the site
Niall Carson/PA
James Morris8 March 2019

Facebook is to clamp down on anti-vaccination groups “spreading misinformation” on the site.

The tech giant has announced it will reduce the ranking of such pages.

Facebook also pledged to reject any adverts it deems to include false information on the topic.

It comes after criticism of the social networking platform over the way its algorithm highlighted content that promotes anti-vaccination ideas.

Last week, NHS England warned "vaccination deniers" were gaining traction on social media as part of a "fake news" movement.

Responding in an official blog post, Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of global policy management, said: "We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.

“If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them."

It comes after Facebook co-founder, chair and CEO Mark Zuckerberg suffered a £6.6 billion fall in his wealth after another testing 12 months for the company.]

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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