Experts Believe Facebook Isn’t Doing Enough To Fight Vaccine Misinformation

Facebook has taken steps in recent months to reduce the amount of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform, particularly in regards to vaccine treatments. However, according to some prominent experts, the social media giant still hasn’t gone far enough to address the problem.

According to Imran Ahmed, CEO of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the company needs to take more dramatic action against accounts like those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s, who was removed from Instagram for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. While that’s a step in the right direction, Ahmed says, the company needs to go further and remove the entire network of accounts connected to individuals like him who are amplifying dangerous messages.

“The removal of these accounts is long overdue,” Ahmed told told Business Insider. “We’re a year into a global pandemic, to which vaccines offer our only way out, and these accounts have been spreading falsehoods to deter people from getting vaccinated consistently. Their lies, and Facebook’s giving them a platform, have almost certainly cost lives.”

This is obviously a lot to ask of Facebook, or any company, to solve this problem — but that’s the issue. No platform should have this much control over public discourse, even if they think they’re capable of handling it.




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