Following FDA’s recent approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children age five to eleven, Facebook has vowed to remove false vaccine use on children. The social media giant has been in the forefront on war against false claims about vaccines.
Kids were not in the picture at the start of the fight against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, but this of course will change following the FDA approval. The approval, though an emergency one, will most likely increase misinformation about the vaccine.
“Following the FDA’s authorization of COVID-19 vaccination for children, we’re announcing steps to promote reliable information to parents on our apps, including in-feed messages for more communities and new ad campaigns,” Kang-Xing Jin, Head of Health said.
Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, said it will start enforcing its “policies on harmful content related to children and the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Facebook said it will start sending in-feed English and Spanish reminders to users in the US about the availability of the vaccine for kids. Reminders will include a link that will help users find users the nearest vaccination site.
The expansion will especially focus on removing false claims that the vaccine can kill or cause serious harm to kids, that they are not effective for children. It will also include removing misinformation that any other thing than a COVID-29 vaccine can work better at protecting children against the virus.
The social media giant says its fight against vaccine misinformation is part of its ongoing effort in partnership with the CDC, WHO and other health authorities. It promises to keep updating its policies and ban any new claim about the vaccine for children that will emerge in the future.
Facebook says more than 20 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram have been removed since the beginning of the pandemic. As of August, the social media giant says it has banned 3,000 accounts, groups, and pages for repeatedly going against its policies on misinformation.
Facebook began its COVID-19 vaccine awareness to eligible adults in the US will get specific information atop their News Feed on where to get vaccinated in their states. So, based on where you live, a new box has been added with specific information about where to get COVID-19 vaccine at the top of the News Feed.
Once the information shows up on your News Feed, it means that you are now eligible to take the COVID-19 vaccine shot. The information will come along with a link on where to find the vaccine in your province in your province.
