Facebook to push vaccines

Facebook announced Thursday that it is taking steps to limit the circulation of anti-vaccine content on its platform, a move that comes after weeks of pushback from critics who said the social media giant was not doing enough to stave off the spread of conspiracy theories promoting misinformation about vaccines.

Lawmakers and public health advocates have been pushing Facebook, as well as YouTube and Amazon, to take stronger action against anti-vaccine content, arguing that the proliferation of medical misinformation has bolstered the "anti-vax" movement of people who choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children. 

Health experts have attributed recent measles outbreaks in the U.S. to an increasing number of people not getting vaccinations, warning that the movement largely uses social media to promote their views.

Facebook's vice president of global policy management, Monika Bickert, announced that Facebook will no longer promote anti-vaccine groups and pages, and Instagram's search will no longer promote posts that spread anti-vaccine content. 

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/433097-facebook-instagram-will-no-longer-recommend-anti-vaccine-content