Facebook is expanding its ban on vaccine misinformation and highlighting official information about how and where to get COVID-19 vaccines as governments race to get more people vaccinated.
"Health officials and health authorities are in the early stages of trying to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, and experts agree that rolling this out successfully is going to be helping build confidence in vaccines," said Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook's head of health.
Social media platforms including Facebook have played a big role in the spread of false claims, hoaxes and conspiracy theories about the pandemic over the last year, despite efforts by tech companies to clamp down on harmful content and promote authoritative sources.
In December, Facebook said it would remove claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts, such as posts saying, falsely, that the vaccines contain microchips.
Now the company is widening the list of banned claims to include posts falsely claiming the virus is man-made or manufactured and that face masks don't prevent the spread of COVID. It's also banning false claims about vaccines in general that have long been in circulation despite being repeatedly debunked: that vaccines are toxic, dangerous or cause autism, that they are not effective, and that it's safer to get a disease than the vaccine meant to prevent it.
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