Facebook is cracking down on misinformation and misleading posts on the social media platform regarding the COVID-19 vaccination procedures and their effect on people once administered to them. The users who have been “believers” that the vaccine would kill people were removed from the platform, but “vaccine-hesitants” seem to have a pass.
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Facebook is making a move to prevent child sexual abuse from its site and combat users who share and spread such content to others. This update will lessen the impact of sharing child exploitation, which the social media application found 13 million harmful videos and images in June and Sept. 2020 alone.
Vaccine-hesitants are people who doubt the vaccine’s effectiveness and effects as it is administered to people, with most of them identifying as anti-vaxxers and do not believe or trust medical experts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that vaccine-hesitants were present even before the existence of social media and COVID-19.
While Facebook was banning COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on the platform, a handful of vaccine-hesitant users have flocked on social media, particularly in the comment sections to provide insights. These words or statements bring a different view to the vaccine but are not exactly misinformation or fake news.
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Vaccine-Hesitant Users Are a Gray Area in Facebook
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According to a report by The Washington Post, Facebook’s research has recently discovered that there are people that go around the comments section to post something against the vaccines of COVID-19.
The research also mentioned that it could lead to doubt and mistrust against the vaccine, without exactly being considered as misinformation.
For Facebook, this matter is a “gray area” where it cannot be considered fake news to be removed from the platform, but is also not legitimate as claims are based mostly on opinions, feelings, and prejudice. With this being said, Facebook still cannot ban these account owners as they only express their opinions on the platform.
However, their opinion has been potentially damaging the trust of the general public in the government’s efforts, along with several campaigns that have been proliferating in the platform of Facebook and other social networks.
Currently, Facebook is looking into the matter so that they can know what actions to take in this gray area.
Posts from Vaccine-Hesitants Are Potentially Harmful
Facebook is centering its research on the matter-at-hand, particularly because of the on-going COVID-19 vaccination that is still trying to gather more applicants and interested parties but is seeing an up-and-down trend. With this, Facebook aims to explore more of the vaccine-hesitant restrictions (if every they get one), especially if it largely affects a cause.
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Written by Isaiah Alonzo
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